Damath

Damath is a board game that comes from the Philippines, and is used as a teaching tool for high school mathematics.

Brief History
The game's name, Damath, comes from the popular board game dama and mathematics. It was invented by Jesus L. Huenda, a teacher inSorsogon, who had encountered problems in teaching math using traditional teaching methods. Inspired in part by an investigatory project called Dama de Numero submitted by a student in 1975, Huenda overhauled the game and introduced it to his class, who enjoyed playing. Damath grew in popularity so that by 1980, the first Damath tournament was held in Sorsogon. The next year, Huenda received a gold medallion from the late President Ferdinand Marcos for his contributions in the field of teaching mathematics. The game reached its peak popularity in the 1990s, when it made the rounds of several mathematics education conventions all over the world such as the 10th Conference of the Mathematical Association of Western Australia (MAWA), the UNESCO-ICT4E conference in Thailand, the SEAMEO RECSAM/SEAMEC conference in Malaysia, and the APEC Learning Community Builders (ALCoB) conference in Korea.

The Game
[edit]

The Board

The Damath board, similar to a chess board, consists of 8 x 8 squares alternating in black and white. On the white squares are the four basic Mathematical operations--addition, subtraction, multiplication and division There are two sets of twelve pieces for each player, marked with numbers from zero to eleven. Odd numbers are marked with negative signs and placed on the left side of the board while even numbers are positive and placed on the right. Numbers outside the playing squares act as guides to show the correct positioning of the pieces. [edit]

Basic Gameplay

As the name implies, the game is essentially the same as dama but with an added math twist: in order to win in Damath, a player must score the most points which are earned by eating the opponent's pieces. In dama, the move ends there; in Damath, the player must solve the mathematical operation on the square in which the opponents piece is currently standing. The answer to that mathematical operation is the amount of points that the player will receive when s/he does eat the opponent's piece. If the piece marked -1 eats the piece marked -3, with -3 standing on a multiplication square, the player must first solve the operation (-1 x -3 = 3) and will get three points. The game will go on until all pieces belonging to a player have been eaten and the scores computed. Because of the need to solve operations, players must list down all moves during the game so the moves can be reviewed, especially by the judges in a tournament setting.

[edit]

Computer Version

A computer version of Damath has been recently made available at the Bureau of Secondary Education website, where Huenda now works as a consultant. This version, named eDamath, can allow players either to compete against a computer or even against each other over a LAN network. The installer is only 7.2mb and compressed into a zip file.

What are the rules of Damath?

"The system will randomly select which player will have the first move. The two players alternately take turns in moving a chip (pass is not allowed). Each player is allotted one minute per move including the computing of the move and the corresponding score in the scoresheet. In taking an opponents chip, the taker chip jumps over the taken chip and uses any of the four operation symbols of +, -, x, and -:- where the taker chip lands. A chip is declared dama if it stops in any of the following squares of the opposing player: (1,0) (3,0) (5,0) (7,0) Similarly, the opposing players chip is declared dama if it stops in any of the following squares: (0,7) (2,7) (4,7) (6,7) A dama chip can slide diagonally forward or backward in any unoccupied square as long as no opponents chip blocks its path. It could take a chip or chips whereby its corresponding sum, difference, product or quotient is doubled. Similarly, if an ordinary chip takes an opponents dama chip, its score is also doubled. Correspondingly, if a dama chip takes an opponents dama chip, then its score is doubled. The game ends if: > the 20-minute game period lapsed; > the moves are repetitive; > a player has no more chip to move; > an opponents chip is cornered. The remaining chip or chips of the players are to be added to their respective scores. If the remaining chip is a dama, then its score is also doubled. The player with the greater accumulated total score wins the game."