Stapeldammen

Stapeldammen, as the name indicates, is a column checkers variant from the Netherlands. It is played on a 8x8 or 10x10 board. Little is known about its origins. The game dates back to the 1960s at least, but it may be much older indeed. The rules set column checkers on top of a substrate of International Draughts. A reminder: precedence of majority capture is one of the implied features. There is one special rule: no promotion. Pieces reaching the back row stay there, unless they are forced to capture backwards from there, during the course of the game.

Forced progress in combination with the no promotion rule entails that there are no draws in Stappeldammen. That is a defining feature, only shared with Grabber. Stacks on the back row may look ugly, but they are not entirely out of play. Combinations may rage over the full board and give new life to these stacks. Another important feature is that tall stacks can be an even more serious waste of mobility than in other games. If a player can sacrifice three or four man to park a really big piece of his opponent on his own front row, effectively immobilizing it, he will hardly hesitate to do so.