Corners, known in Russian as ugolki, is a simple yet tricky game on an 8×8 checkers board. Nobody captures anything: the winner is the first player to march all their pieces into the opponent's corner. On 9qum you can play corners online for free in your browser, on a phone or a computer, with nothing to download. You only need a free sign-up that takes a minute.
The computer has four levels: Novice, Amateur, Strong and Master. Novice suits children and first-time players, while Master calculates deepest of all. Play rated games with people online, with a separate Glicko-2 rating for corners. To play a friend, send an invite link, and if you are together, two players can share one screen.
Each player has 9 pieces arranged in a 3×3 square in their own corner: White in the bottom left, Black in the top right. White moves first. On your turn you move one piece to a neighbouring empty square horizontally or vertically, or jump over a neighbouring piece, yours or your opponent's, onto the empty square right behind it. Jumps can be chained, and you may stop after any of them. Diagonal moves are not allowed and there are no captures: the piece you jump over stays on the board.
The goal is to be first to place all 9 pieces in the opponent's corner. White starts, so if White finishes first, Black gets one more move, and if Black finishes too, the game is a draw. To stop anyone blocking their own corner, there is a 40-move rule: if after each side's 40th move a player still has a piece in their home corner, that player loses. If the game reaches 100 moves per side, whoever has more pieces in the opponent's corner wins.
Many people remember corners from school: all you need is an ordinary checkers board and 18 pieces. The game is related to Halma, invented in the United States in the 1880s, and to Chinese checkers, since in all of them pieces travel to the far side of the board by jumping over their own and the opponent's pieces. House rules vary: some allow diagonal moves or use more pieces. 9qum plays the classic version with 9 pieces in a 3×3 corner and moves only along ranks and files.
Build ladders: pieces standing one square apart create long jump chains, and a single jump across half the board is worth several steps. Jump over your opponent's pieces too, but do not leave ready-made ladders for them. Do not abandon stragglers: the last piece left at home slows the whole game and can lose it under the 40-move rule. At the end, fill the far squares of the target corner first so that the remaining pieces have room to enter.
Every game is saved in your history, so you can replay it move by move. You can also run tournaments in corners. The site works in English, Russian and Kazakh, and there is an Android app on Google Play.
To learn corners from scratch, open the Learn section: a 15-step course on a live board covers the rules, the first tactics and how to win. To train your calculation there are Puzzles: 50 positions where you look for the best move and the board checks your answer at once.
In Play with a coach mode the coach rates each of your moves as best, excellent, good, inaccuracy, mistake or blunder. After a blunder the game pauses, the coach shows the threat and lets you take the move back, and you get three hints per game.
Game analysis lets you play moves for both sides, set up your own position and ask the AI for advice. Games against the computer are saved in your history.
No. On 9qum pieces step and jump only horizontally or vertically, as in classic corners.
No. You can jump over an opponent's piece, but it stays on the board and may help your opponent with jumps of their own.
White moves first, so after White's last move Black gets one more. If Black also completes the corner with that move, the game is a draw.
It stops a player from keeping a piece at home to block the opponent from entering. If you still have a piece in your home corner after each side's 40th move, you lose the game.
It is free; you only need a free one-minute sign-up. Your account keeps your rating and game history.
Corners rules · Learn corners with a coach
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