Calhoon's Checker Challenge

Solitaire game played on a checker board. This is more of a puzzle/strategy game than a traditional checkers/draughts game. There is no opponent. Published in Loadstar #115. In this Calhoon episode, Knees dares you to find the best solution to his checkerboard challenge. You don't really need to be a checkers player to win the Challenge. You just need to know that in checkers you can move a piece one space diagonally in any direction. In Checkers Challenge. lets assume all the pieces are "crowned" and that constitutes a move. Or you can jump a piece over another to an empty square, then keep on jumping, if there are pieces positioned to allow a jump. Any number of jumps constitutes a single move.

The challenge then is to move al 12 of your pieces from your opening position at the bottom of the board to the same position at the top of the board, using normal checkers moves. Try to do this in as few moves as possible. Let 30 moves be your guide and try to get under that to begin with.