Kōnane

Kōnane begins with the board completely full — black lava stones and white coral stones arranged in a checkerboard on a papamū grid. You play black; the computer plays white, and black moves first.

1. The opening (two removals). Black removes one black stone from a highlighted corner or centre cell. Then White removes one white stone that is orthogonally next to that empty space.
2. Jump to capture. Every move is a jump: hop one of your stones straight over an orthogonally adjacent enemy stone into the empty cell just beyond, and remove the stone you jumped. Jumps are never diagonal.
3. Multi-jumps. After a jump you may keep jumping with the same stone, but only continuing in the same straight line, while an enemy-then-empty pattern holds. You may stop after any jump, but every turn must capture at least one stone.
4. Winning. The player who, on their turn, has no legal jump loses — so the last player to move wins. There are no draws.

Use the toggle to switch between vs Computer and 2 Players, and between the full 8×8 board and the quicker 6×6 board.

Full rules guide & cultural history →

Kōnane is an indigenous Hawaiian strategy game, played on a papamū — a grid of small depressions worked into a slab of lava stone — with ʻiliʻili pebbles of black lava and white coral. It was enjoyed by aliʻi (chiefs) and commoners alike and is woven into Hawaiian oral tradition.

Members of Captain Cook's crew, encountering the game in 1778–79, dubbed it "Hawaiian checkers." That label is loose: unlike checkers, Kōnane is won not by capturing the most pieces but by making the last move — leaving your opponent with no legal jump.

(A popular story claims one of Kamehameha's queens once beat a British visitor at Kōnane; this is best treated as a commemorative legend rather than documented history.) Discouraged after Western contact, Kōnane is being actively revived today through cultural and educational programmes in Hawaiʻi.