What Is Turkish Draughts?

Turkish draughts — dama — is a checkers variant played on a standard 8x8 board and woven deep into Turkey's coffee-house culture. Its defining twist: pieces move orthogonally, not diagonally — straight forward and sideways. That single change reshapes the entire tactical fabric and makes dama a calculation-rich game quite unlike the checkers most players grew up with.

Board and Setup

The game is played on an 8x8 board with 16 pieces per player. Each player's pieces fill their second and third ranks — two full rows of eight — leaving the back rank empty. Unlike diagonal checkers, every square is used; there is no light-square/dark-square distinction.

How Pieces Move

An ordinary piece (a "man") has three legal directions, all straight:

  • Forward: one square straight ahead.
  • Sideways: one square left or one square right.
  • Never backward: a man cannot retreat, and there is no diagonal movement at all.

Because of this, dama armies advance as a broad front, and the sideways step becomes a constant tool for rebuilding your defensive line.

Capturing: Compulsory, and Always the Maximum

A capture is made by jumping over an adjacent enemy piece into the empty square directly beyond it; the jumped piece leaves the board. Men capture forward and sideways. Two rules are absolute:

  • Capturing is mandatory: if a capture is available, you must take it — it cannot be declined.
  • You must play the line that captures the most: when several capture sequences exist, the one that removes the largest number of enemy pieces is compulsory. If two or more sequences tie for the maximum, the player chooses freely between them.

If a jump lands your piece where another capture is available, the same move continues as a chain capture — taking three or four pieces in a single turn is an everyday sight in dama.

Promotion and the Flying King

A man that reaches the opponent's back rank is promoted to a king (dama). The Turkish king is the most powerful piece in any draughts family, because it is a flying king:

  • It slides any number of squares vertically or horizontally, and may now also move backward.
  • It can capture a distant enemy piece by leaping over it and landing on any empty square beyond it.
  • Chain captures apply to kings too: if a new capture opens after a jump, the king keeps going.

A single flying king can mow through a careless formation in one move, which is why the race to promote is one of the game's central storylines.

How the Game Ends

You lose in either of two ways: when you have no pieces left, or when it is your turn and you have no legal move. That means you can defeat an opponent without capturing everything — locking their remaining pieces so they cannot move is an equally valid win. If neither side can force a win, the game is a draw.

Play Dama on Game Finale

Turkish draughts (Dama) is live on Game Finale today, playable with the same account and virtual-chip wallet you already use on tables where mandatory and maximum-capture rules are enforced on the server. All chips are virtual: they have no real-money value and cannot be cashed out.