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Turkish Draughts, known as Dama, is a recognised variant played across Turkey, the Balkans and the Middle East. The board looks familiar but the movement is not: pieces move and capture forwards and sideways in straight lines rather than diagonally, which changes everything.
That single difference produces a game with a completely different feel from international draughts. Captures sweep along ranks and files, chains can turn corners, and a promoted piece becomes enormously powerful because it slides any distance like a rook. Players who know standard draughts often find it disorienting at first.
Remember that captures are compulsory. If any of your pieces can take, you must play one of them, so a sacrifice that forces a particular capture can steer your opponent into a much worse position.
Watch for chained captures turning corners. Unlike diagonal draughts, a capture sequence here can change direction between jumps, so a piece that looks safe from one side may be reachable through a two-part chain.
Value promotion highly. A promoted piece moves any distance along a rank or file, which makes it far stronger than a king in standard draughts. Getting one first often decides the game.
Keep your back rank intact early. Because movement is straight rather than diagonal, gaps in your rear rank are much easier for an opponent to exploit than in the game you may be used to.
Pieces move and capture straight forwards and sideways rather than diagonally, and promoted pieces slide any distance like a rook.
Yes, which makes forcing sequences a central tactic.
Ordinary pieces capture forwards and sideways. Promoted pieces are far more mobile.
Very much so. It is the standard draughts variant across Turkey and much of the Middle East.
Completely free, with no trial and no unlock. Turkish Draughts loads with the page and plays immediately, without an install step or a video ad first.