This game is not very spread in the world. It is only played in Italia and in some North African countries.
Its name is “Dama Italiana”.
It looks like American checkers, but, at first sight, you can see than the board is inverted. Some other differences appear when you look closely at it, particularly priority rules for capture.
The rules
This game is played on a 8x8 board (64 squares).
Double corner is on the left of each player.
The player who has white pieces begins.
Moves of the men
The men can move on each empty forward left and forward right if it is empty. When they arrive on the last line, they become kings.
Move of the kings
The kings can move on each empty square around them (forward and backward).
Captures
If you have the choice between several captures, you must choose the one that gives you the most pieces ; of course you can only stop in a square where there is nothing more to capture.
- Men cannot capture kings.
- When you have several captures with the maximum of piece, you must capture with a king (if you can).
- When you have several maximum captures with kings, you must capture the most opponent's kings.
- When there are still choices, you must capture by the way which make you capture a king as soon as possible.
Capture by the men
The men can capture forward only, by jumping over the opponent man, if the piece is near it, and the following square is empty. If they can jump again from the arrival square, they must continue the capture. You will see easily that the higher number of pieces that they can capture in a row is 3 .
Capture by the kings
The kings can capture like the men, but forward and backward, and they can capture both men and kings.
Who wins, who loses ?
The loser is the one who cannot move any more (no piece or all pieces blocked). The winner is his opponent, of course.
There may be draw if :
- opponents agree for a draw
- the same position is encountered 3 times