Turkish draughts

Qataris playing Dama in Souq Waqif

On an 8×8 board, 16 men are lined up on each side, in two rows. The back rows are vacant. A traditional Turkish draughts gameboard is mono-coloured. White moves first.

Men move orthogonally forwards or sideways one square, capturing by means of a jump; they cannot move or capture backwards or diagonally. When a man reaches the back row, it promotes to a king. Kings can move any number of empty squares orthogonally forwards, backwards or sideways. A king captures by jumping over a single piece any number of empty squares away, landing on any open square beyond the captured piece along a straight line.

If a jump is available it must be taken. If there is more than one way to jump, the one capturing the most number of pieces must be taken. If there is more than one way to capture the maximum number of pieces, the player may choose. Within a multicapture, turning 180 degrees between two captures is not allowed. Pieces are removed from the board immediately after being jumped. There is no distinction between king and man during captures; each counts as a piece.

A player wins if the opponent has no legal move, either because all his pieces are captured or he is completely blocked. A king versus single man also wins the game.[2][3][4]

Since 2014, World Championships have taken place annually. The first official Turkish Draughts World Championships were held 22–24 October 2014 in Izmir, Turkey. The second championships were also held in Izmir, with the third in Doha, the capital of Qatar. The first Women's Turkish Draughts World Championships took place in Izmir during May 2016.

• Dama can be played online against other players at Brain King and iggamecenter.
• Dama was the core inspiration for the games Dameo and Croda.[5][6]
• In Dama two kings always beat a lone king under skillful play compared to four kings needed to capture a lone king in international draughts.[7]
• Dama has a much lower draw rate than checkers or International Draughts.[3]

• Abstract Strategy Games
• Armenian Draughts
• Dameo
• Draughts
• Tobit
• Keny

• Bell, R. C. (1979) [1st Pub. 1960, Oxford University Press, London]. Board and Table Games From Many Civilizations. I (Revised ed.). Dover Publications Inc. pp. 73–74. ISBN 0-671-06030-9.
• Murray, H. J. R. (1978). "§4.4.1 Atlanbaj; now called Dama". A History of Board-Games other than Chess (Reissued ed.). Hacker Art Books Inc. p. 82. ISBN 0-87817-211-4.
• Schmittberger, R. Wayne (1992). New Rules for Classic Games. John Wiley & Sons Inc. pp. 174–75. ISBN 978-0471536215.

• Turkish draughts federation – Rules (in Turkish)
• Games at Turkish draughts at site World champion Faik-Yildiz