What is "konane"

Kōnane is a two-player strategy board game from Hawaii. It was invented by the ancient Hawaiian Polynesians. The game begins with all the counters filling the board in an alternating pattern of black and white. Players then hop over one another's pieces, capturing them similar to checkers. The first player unable to capture is the loser; his opponent is the winner.

Before contact with Europeans, the game was played using small pieces of white coral and black lava on a large carved rock which doubled as both board and table. The Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park has one of these stone gameboards on its premises.

The game is somewhat similar to draughts. Pieces hop over one another when capturing; however, the similarities end there. In draughts, one player's pieces are initially set up on one side of the board opposite the other player's pieces. In Konane, both players' pieces are intermixed in a checkered pattern of black and white occupying every square of the board. Furthermore, in Konane all moves are capturing moves, captures are made in an orthogonal direction (not diagonally), and in a multiple-capture move the capturing piece may not change direction.

Konane has some resemblances to the games of Leap Frog, and Main Chuki or Tjuki. In both Konane and Leap Frog, every square of the board is occupied by a playing piece in the beginning of the game, and the only legal moves (after the first turn) are orthogonal captures by the short leap method. However, there are significant differences in Konane and Leap Frog.