Konane Rulebook

Table of Contents

Introduction & History
How to Play
- Beginning the Game
- Capturing Pieces
Ending the Game
Variations
Further Information

Introduction & History

Konane is a game of strategy invented in Hawaii at some unknown time in the past. Captain Cook described the game, which was already being played when he made contact with the islanders in the eighteenth century.

Originally it was played on boards carved out of rock, using shells and pebbles of solid lava as pieces, and a number of these boards have been found around the islands. Nowadays it is more often played with pegged pieces or marbles on suitably made boards.

The game is for two players and has sometimes been called "Hawaiian draughts" or "Hawaiian checkers". Its resemblance to draughts is just superficial, though, and the game could more accurately be described as a two-player version of peg solitaire.

How to Play

Konane is played by two people on a rectangular board with an even number of playing spaces. A common size is ten rows of ten spaces, so that is the size adopted here and shown in Illustration 1. Such a board requires fifty black and fifty white pieces.

Illustration 1: the empty konane board. The 10x10 board is sometimes specified as a minimum, though 6x6 and 8x8 boards are sometimes sold commercially.

Beginning the Game

The game begins with the pieces filling the board in a chequerboard pattern, as shown in Illustration 2.
The black player begins by removing a black piece from one of the four central squares, or from one of the four corners.
The white player responds by removing a white piece adjacent to the space left by the black player.
Once this has been done, the capture phase can begin, black taking the first turn.

Illustration 2: the pieces laid out at the start of the game.

Capturing Pieces

A player in his turn captures a piece by lifting one of his own pieces, jumping horizontally or vertically over a single opposing piece, and removing it from the board (see Illustration 3).
If possible, a player can use the same piece to jump over further enemy pieces in the same direction.
When making multiple captures in a single turn, the piece doing the jumping may not therefore change direction.
The player need not make all the captures that are available to him, if he thinks it would be to his disadvantage.
One player having made his captures, the other then takes his turn, and play alternates thereafter till the game is over.

Illustration 3: possible moves for one of the white pieces. Note that no change of direction is allowed when making multiple jumps.

Ending the Game

The game is over when a player has no legal move.
The player who cannot move loses the game, his opponent being declared the winner.
Numbers of captured pieces on each side have no effect on who has won the game.

Variations

As mentioned earlier, boards can be of any size, as long as there is an even number of playing spaces and each player therefore has an equal number of pieces. The board need not be square; oblong boards were common in Hawaii.

Historically a minimum size was 10 rows of 10 squares, but in more recent times the game has been played on 8 by 8 and even 6 by 6 boards.

A modern form of the game revokes rules 6–8, and restricts players to making just a single capture in their turn. This form of the game might be better suited to the smaller boards.

Further Information

Information on Konane can be found in the following books:

Bell, R. C. The Boardgame Book, pp. 132-133. London: Marshall Cavendish Ltd., 1979.

Bell, R. C. Games to Play, p. 42. London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1988.

Murray, H. J. R. A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess, p. 97. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952.

Parlett, D. The Oxford History of Board Games, p. 246. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.