How to Play Damath

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Damath is a two-player strategy board game played on a standard 8x8 draughts board in which every capture produces a maths calculation. Each square on the board carries an operator symbol (plus, minus, multiply, or divide), and when a chip lands on that square by jumping an opponent, the values of the two chips are combined using that operator to generate the capturing player's score. The blend of tactical movement and mental arithmetic is what makes the game genuinely distinctive.

The game is particularly popular in schools and youth competitions because it sharpens arithmetic skills while remaining competitive and fun. It is most widely played in the Philippines, where inter-school tournaments are a regular fixture, but interest has grown steadily among maths educators and board game enthusiasts internationally.

A little history

Damath was developed in the Philippines and is widely credited to Jesus Huenda, a secondary school teacher who introduced the concept in the Sorsogon region during the 1970s as a classroom tool for making arithmetic practice more engaging. Its name is a portmanteau of the Filipino word "dama" (the local name for draughts) and "mathematics". The game spread through the Philippine educational system and became a staple of the National Schools Press Conference and similar academic competitions. Beyond that documented origin, the finer details of how the rules were formalised over the years are not thoroughly recorded in widely available sources.

Setting up

1. Place the board between both players so that each has a light corner square to their bottom right.
2. Identify the dark squares only: these are the playable squares, and each one is printed with a maths operator (plus, minus, multiply, or divide) arranged in a repeating pattern across the board.
3. Player 1 takes 12 chips numbered 0 to 11 in one colour; Player 2 takes 12 chips numbered 0 to 11 in the contrasting colour.
4. Each player places their chips on the dark squares of the three rows closest to them, one chip per square, filling all 12 available positions.
5. Arrange chips in numerical order from left to right across each row so both players begin with an identical, symmetrical layout. Standard placement: back row holds chips 6-11 arranged left to right across the three occupied rows from the player's perspective.
6. Decide who moves first (coin toss or mutual agreement). Player 1 is conventionally the player whose chips occupy the bottom of the board.

How to play

1. Players alternate turns. On each turn a player must move exactly one chip.
2. All movement is diagonal, one square at a time, and always forward (toward the opponent's side) unless the chip has been promoted to a Dama.
3. A chip may only occupy dark squares. It may never move to or through a light square.
4. To capture an opponent's chip, jump diagonally over it in a forward direction, landing on the empty dark square immediately beyond it. The captured chip is removed from the board.
5. When a capture is made, note the operator symbol printed on the landing square. Apply that operator to the value of the capturing chip (yours) and the captured chip (opponent's): for example, if your chip is 5 and you land on a multiply square capturing a chip valued 3, you score 5 x 3 = 15.
6. Add the result of that calculation to your running score on the score sheet. If the result is negative (possible with subtraction or division), add it as a negative value: scores can go below zero.
7. Capturing is mandatory: if a capture move is available, you must take it. If multiple captures are available, you may choose which one to take.
8. Multiple captures in a single turn (chaining) are allowed if each successive landing square offers a further jump over an opponent chip. Score each capture separately using the operator on each respective landing square.
9. When a chip reaches the farthest row on the opponent's side (the back rank), it is promoted to a Dama. Mark it visibly (for example, by stacking a second chip on top or using an agreed marker).
10. A Dama moves diagonally in any direction (forward or backward) and may slide multiple squares in one move rather than just one, similar to a king in draughts. When a Dama captures, the standard operator scoring applies at the landing square.
11. A Dama chip scores double when captured by an opponent: multiply the result of the landing-square calculation by two.
12. Play continues until neither player can make any legal move, all chips of one colour have been captured, or both players agree the position is exhausted.

Winning and scoring

When play ends, each player totals their score from the score sheet. The player with the higher cumulative score wins. If scores are equal, the player with more chips remaining on the board wins. If chips are also equal, the game is a draw. There is no fixed winning threshold: the outcome depends entirely on the accumulated arithmetic results of all captures made during the game, so a player who has captured fewer chips can still win if those captures involved high-value multiplications.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns the mandatory capture rule when a chain is possible. If a player's first jump creates a position where a second jump is immediately available, that second jump must also be taken in the same turn. A player who lifts their hand from the chip after the first jump and declares the turn over has made an illegal move; the opponent may require the full chain to be completed before the turn ends. Similarly, if two separate single captures are available but no chain exists, the player chooses freely which capture to take.

Division results require care: in standard Damath, division is carried out as standard arithmetic division and the result is recorded as a decimal or fraction where it is not a whole number. Some school tournament rulesets specify that division results are always rounded to the nearest whole number; agree on this before play begins. A second common edge case involves a Dama capturing a regular chip versus a Dama capturing another Dama. Only the captured piece being a Dama triggers the double-score rule, not the capturing piece. If a regular chip captures a Dama, the doubled score still applies. Both players should confirm their score entries immediately after each capture to avoid end-game disputes.

How to win more often

• Protect high-value chips early. A chip numbered 11 captured on a multiply square can hand your opponent a decisive score swing, so keep your highest numbers away from vulnerable forward positions until you are ready to use them offensively.
• Aim to land captures on multiply squares when your chip values are both high, and engineer situations where your opponent must land on subtract or divide squares when capturing you.
• Promotion is powerful but not always urgent. A Dama can cover the whole board, but racing a chip to the back rank may leave gaps your opponent exploits for multi-chip captures. Evaluate whether the promotion is worth the positional cost.
• Track the running scores continuously. If you are ahead by a significant margin, shift to a defensive posture, reduce available captures, and let the game wind down rather than chasing further points that risk costly exchanges.
• Control the multiply squares in the centre of the board. These squares produce the largest score swings, so denying your opponent access to them while positioning your own captures to land on them is the single most effective strategic habit.

Variations

Integer Damath

Chips are numbered using both positive and negative integers, typically ranging from -5 to 5 or similar sets agreed in advance. This variant is used in higher-year school competitions and demands that players think carefully about signed-number arithmetic: a negative chip captured on a multiply square by another negative chip produces a positive score, which can flip the outcome unexpectedly. All other movement and scoring rules remain the same.

Rational Number Damath

Chips carry fractional values (for example, one half, one third, three quarters) rather than whole numbers. This variant is designed for older students studying fractions and ratios. Division results are expressed as simplified fractions on the score sheet. The added cognitive load of fraction arithmetic while maintaining board awareness makes this a genuinely demanding version.

Polynomial Damath

Each chip is labelled with a simple algebraic term (for example, x, 2x, x squared) and the operator squares work as in algebra. Players score algebraic expressions rather than numerical values, and at the end of the game scores are compared by substituting an agreed value for x and evaluating both totals. This variant is used at secondary level to reinforce algebraic manipulation skills.

Speed Damath

A chess clock or agreed per-turn timer (commonly 30 seconds) is introduced to add time pressure. Any player who does not complete a legal move before their time expires forfeits that turn. Speed Damath is popular in competition settings to ensure rounds finish within a session and to prevent deliberate slow play. All scoring and movement rules are otherwise identical to the standard game.

Damath: frequently asked questions