Losing at Checkers is Hard
Jeffrey Bosboom, Spencer Congero, Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine, Jayson Lynch · arXiv (Cornell University) · 2018
We prove computational intractability of variants of checkers: (1) deciding whether there is a move that forces the other player to win in one move is NP-complete; (2) checkers where players must always be able to jump on their turn is PSPACE-complete; and (3) cooperative versions of (1) and (2) are NP-complete. We also give cooperative checkers puzzles whose solutions are the letters of the alphabet.