Konane is a traditional variant played on Hawai. It is arguably a draughts variant, but with a shift in emphasis regarding the object. Sure, a player wins if he captures all the opponent's men, but that hardly ever happens. The prime object is to leave the opponent without a legal move. 'Columnified' the game transforms into Grabber.

Play Konane interactively

The diagram shows the board with the men in the initial position. The rules are simple. Black starts after which players take turns. Moving is obligatory.

  • Black on his first move must remove a black man from a cornersquare or from a square adjacent to the centerpoint of the board. White must next remove a white man from a square adjacent to the one vacated by black.
  • From that point on, every move must be a capture. A man captures an opponent's man by jumping over it to the square immediately beyond, which must be vacant for the capture to take place. All jumps are orthogonal only. Multiple jumps are allowed, but only in the same direction as the first jump. Multiple jumps are not obligatory: the player may stop after the first or any subsequent capture. After the capture has been terminated, the captured men are removed.
  • The first player unable to make a capture loses the game.


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