Armenian draughts, or Tama, is a variant of

draughts Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...

(or

checkers Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...

) played in

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

. The rules are similar to Dama. Armenian draughts, however, allows for diagonal movement.

Rules

On an 8×8 board, 16 men are lined up on each side in two rows, skipping the first and last row. From a player's point of view, the second and third rows are filled with men of his own color, and the sixth and seventh rows are filled with the opponent's men. Players alternate turns with each making one move per turn. Pieces initially consist of men only. When reaching the opposite side of the board, men are "crowned" to pieces called kings. A man can move forwards, straight ahead or diagonally, or sideways to an orthogonally adjacent field if that field is empty. Kings may move in all directions (up, down, left, right, or diagonally), as long as the path is clear of pieces. In other words, the king moves like a

Chess queen The queen (♕, ♛) is the most powerful piece in the game of chess. It can move any number of squares vertically, horizontally or , combining the powers of the rook and bishop. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle o ...

. If a man is orthogonally adjacent to an opponent's man, and there is an empty field one square beyond, it may capture the opponent's man by leaping into the empty space (left, right, or forwards). There is no backward or diagonal capture for men. Kings may capture by jumping over a piece and landing in any field beyond the piece captured, as long as it is not blocked by another piece. Kings may not capture diagonally. Multiple captures are allowed, and required where possible, for men and kings alike. If, when landing on an empty field after capturing an opponent's man, there is another capture possible, it must be taken immediately. If there are multiples different opportunities for capture, the one which takes the most pieces is mandatory (no distinction between kings and men is made). If there are several opportunities for capture that fulfill the maximum capture rule, the player may choose which to take. Pieces are removed during capture rather than at the end of the move, which means a capture may be "opened up" mid-move by capturing a different piece earlier in the move. The game ends when one player cannot move their pieces, either because they have been hemmed in and cannot make a legal move, or because all of their pieces were captured.

References

External links

Some sites give the rules wrongly, allowing also diagonal capture. Correct versions are at:
HCheckers - a computer opponent playing many variants, including the Armenian one

Goldtoken
(click on ''rules'')
A free checkers program
{{Portal bar, Games Draughts variants Armenian culture Board games Abstract strategy games Armenian inventions

Rules

See also

References

External links