Why a kampung verandah?

Malaysian newspaper reports describe dam haji as a favourite of older men at kampung warung tables and coffee shops. So the board here sits on the wooden planks of a verandah, and the dark squares are indigo batik with a small four-petal print.

The pieces are turned wooden discs, cream for you and red for the computer. When a piece becomes a haji it gets a second disc stacked on top. That is how players mark a haji on a real board.

A bit of real dam haji history

Dam is the Malay name for draughts, the game Americans call checkers. The Kamus Dewan dictionary describes it as a game for two players, each moving 12 pieces on a board of squares like a chessboard.

In 1915 the British scholar R. J. Wilkinson wrote that the Dutch had brought draughts to the Malay world, and that it kept a Dutch name. He saw one real difference from the European game he knew. The crowned piece could capture from any distance along a line. Dam haji still has that long move.

Today the crowned piece is called a haji, or aji, which is why the game is called dam haji or dam aji. A piece that reaches the far side is said to naik haji. In everyday Malay, naik haji means going on the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, and haji is the title of someone who has made it. We could not find a written source that says when or why the piece got this name.

Search for dam haji and you will also find pages about a different dam: the penalty a pilgrim pays for breaking certain rules during the Hajj.

Clubs and tournaments still run in several states. Before a match, players often settle who goes first with a round of wan tu som.

The kampung animals

• Memerang (otter): moves any piece it likes, at random.
• Enggang (hornbill): looks at its own move and your reply, and tries not to lose a piece.
• Harimau (tiger): thinks 4 moves ahead and likes to set up double captures.
• Sang Kancil (mouse-deer): thinks 6 or more moves ahead, depending on your device, and trades pieces when it is winning. In Malay folk tales the little kancil outwits the tiger and the crocodiles, so it sits at the top.

How to play

• You play cream and go first. A plain piece (buah) moves one square on the slant, forward only.
• To capture (makan), jump over a red piece next to you onto the empty square behind it. Plain pieces only capture forward. Capturing is a must, and a piece that can capture again keeps going in the same turn.
• A piece that reaches the far row becomes a haji. It moves any distance along a slant, forward or back, and can capture from far away, landing on any empty square behind the piece it takes.
• Win by taking every red piece, or by leaving red with no move.

Where the rules differ

Dam haji rules change from table to table. This page uses the set most Malaysian write-ups describe: an 8 by 8 board, 12 pieces each, plain pieces that never go backward, compulsory captures and a flying haji. Some of the common differences:

• Some players use a bigger 12 by 12 board with 30 pieces each.
• Instead of forcing the capture, some tables punish a missed one. If you forget to makan, the other player may take the piece that should have captured. In English this is called huffing.
• Some say you must take the most pieces you can. Here any capture is fine, as long as you finish it.
• At least one description has the haji moving only one square at a time.

The draw after 25 haji-only moves each is our own rule, so that every game ends.

Tips

Keep your back row. While your pieces sit on the row nearest you, red cannot land there to naik haji. Move those pieces last.

Watch the long lines. A haji can capture from across the board. A piece with an empty square behind it on an open slant is in danger even when no red piece is close.

Park your haji behind them. Plain pieces only capture forward, so a haji sitting behind the red pieces is safe from every plain one.

Use the must-capture rule. You can offer one piece on purpose. The red piece that takes it may land where you can capture two.

Your turn

Twelve cream pieces are waiting on the batik at the top of this page. Start with Memerang, work up to Sang Kancil, and play.