Hawaii · Strategy Game · 2 Players

How to Play Kōnane

Kōnane is an indigenous Hawaiian strategy game — sometimes loosely called "Hawaiian checkers" — played on a papamū, a grid of small depressions in lava stone, with ʻiliʻili pebbles of black lava and white coral. Unusually, the board starts completely full, and the whole game is a war of jump-captures. The twist that sets it apart from checkers: you do not win by taking the most stones — you win by making the last move.

The Board

Kōnane is played on a square grid of cells — most commonly 8×8, though smaller boards such as 6×6 (faster) and larger ones up to about 13×13 are all traditional. Every cell holds a stone at the start: the stones alternate in a perfect checkerboard of black and white, so each black stone touches only white stones along the rows and columns, and vice-versa.

  ● ○ ● ○ ● ○ ● ○
  ○ ● ○ ● ○ ● ○ ●
  ● ○ ● ○ ● ○ ● ○
  ○ ● ○ ● ○ ● ○ ●
  ● ○ ● ○ ● ○ ● ○
  ○ ● ○ ● ○ ● ○ ●
  ● ○ ● ○ ● ○ ● ○
  ○ ● ○ ● ○ ● ○ ●

  ● = black lava stone   ○ = white coral stone
  (the full 8×8 starting position)

Setting Up

Fill every cell with a stone in an alternating black/white checkerboard.
Black moves first. (In this version you play black; the computer plays white.)

The Opening — Two Removals

Because the board is completely full, no jump is possible until two spaces are cleared. The game therefore begins with a short, restricted opening:

Black removes one black stone. It must come from a restricted set — a corner cell or one of the central cells. (In this version the legal opening cells are highlighted for you: the black corners and the black cells of the centre.)
White removes one white stone that sits orthogonally adjacent (up, down, left, or right) to the space Black just emptied. Because the board alternates, such a white stone always exists.

With two stones gone, normal play begins — and Black takes the first jump.

Jumping — Every Move Captures

From here on, every move is a capture. To move, you take one of your stones and jump it straight over an orthogonally adjacent enemy stone into the empty cell immediately beyond. The stone you jumped over is removed from the board. Jumps are always orthogonal — never diagonal.

Jumping rules:

You need the pattern your stone → enemy stone → empty cell, all in a straight horizontal or vertical line.
Multi-jumps: after a jump you may continue with the same stone, but only by continuing in the same straight line as that jump. You can never turn a corner within a single move.
You may stop after any jump, but you must capture at least one stone — passing is not allowed.
Only one stone moves per turn.

How to Win

Make the last move. When it is your opponent's turn and they have no legal jump anywhere on the board, they lose — so you win by being the last player able to move.
There are no draws. Every move removes at least one stone, so the number of stones strictly decreases and the game must end with one side stuck.

Strategy Tips

Mobility is everything. Since the loser is whoever runs out of moves, count moves, not captures. A capture that leaves you with more future jumps than your opponent is usually the right one.
Don't empty yourself out. Long greedy multi-jumps feel good but can strand your stone with no follow-up while handing the opponent the tempo.
Watch the edges and corners. Stones near the rim have fewer directions to jump and are easier to leave stranded — both yours and theirs.
Set traps. Aim to reach a position where you still have a quiet jump in reserve while your opponent's last options dry up.

Cultural History

Kōnane is an indigenous Hawaiian board game played on a papamū — a slab of lava stone (or a wooden board) worked with a grid of shallow depressions — using ʻiliʻili, smooth pebbles, in two colours: black lava and white coral. It was enjoyed across Hawaiian society, by aliʻi (chiefs) and commoners alike, and appears in oral tradition and chant.

When members of Captain Cook's expedition encountered the game in 1778–79, they called it "Hawaiian checkers." The nickname stuck but is misleading: Kōnane's winning condition — last to move wins, rather than capturing the most pieces — gives it a character closer to combinatorial games like Nim than to draughts. (A frequently repeated anecdote that one of Kamehameha's queens defeated a British visitor at Kōnane is best treated as a commemorative legend rather than firm history.)

Like many Native Hawaiian practices, Kōnane was discouraged after Western contact and faded from everyday play. Today it is the subject of an active cultural revival, taught in schools and community programmes in Hawaiʻi as part of a broader reclaiming of Hawaiian heritage.

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