Damath Game  

Dama is a famous traditional board game in the Philippines. The game is

played in a wooded board with 10 squares and 14 end points. Today,

Dama has evolved from a mere Filipino pastime to an educational tool in

the Philippines, with the introduction of Damath.

History

Countries around the world have their own versions of the game

called "checkers", a name which gets its roots from North America.

 In the Philippines and in Armenia, the game is called dama.

According to experts, the game actually originated from

Ancient Egypt. Archaeologist found traces of the game in an

excavation dig in Ur, Iraq and speculated that the game existed

at around 1400 B.C. Ancient Egyptians called the game

 "alquerque", which had a 5x5 board with a grid and diagonal

 lines intersecting the grids. There were only 10 pieces per side,

moving along the intersections. Historians claimed the invention

 of modern checkers evolved from the 12th century game they

called "ferses" (or "fierges") which combined the rules of

alquerque with the chess. Around the 16th century, the game's name evolved to "dames" and became popular in France. The game

was then exported to England and America where the British

 called it "draughts". In a related research, historians found

 books written on the game in Spain and in England.

Playing Dama

The game is played by two people, each with 12 pieces

of pitsas made from bamboo, stones, or bottle caps. Player

position the 12 pieces of "pitsa" on the end points of the

diagram. They move from point to point, and like chess,

the game ends once the opponents pitsas are caputured.

In some parts of the Philippines, the game is played using

a chess board and its pieces. The pawns, knights, and

rooks are usually used at the start, while the kings, queens,

and bishop are used when a player reached the "dama".

The "dama stage" is reached when a player gets his

piece to the last row of the board.

There are also several other versions of dama within the

 Philippines. One of which is the popular "pildi-dama"

(or perdigana) which comes from a Bisayan word "pildi"

which means "to lose".

Important Notes

• The pitsas can only move diagonally along the intersection of lines or

       squares in chessboards.

• Pitsas cannot eat or capture backwards.

• Pieces that have reached the "dama stage" can move from row to row

      diagonally.

In the Philippines, dama has evolve to be a popular educational

 activity, which is known as "Damath." The word comes from

the game "dama" and Mathematics. The game is a combination

of dama as a stategy game and mathematical operations.

The game then boosted its popularity and since then the game

has been played in schools in the Philippines with national

tournaments held every year. Today, the game has also

evolved to "Sci-Damath" which is a combination of Damath

and scientific operations.