How Surakarta works
Surakarta is a traditional strategy game from Southeast Asia for two players. It is played on a 6×6 grid with 36 intersections – and with eight loops running outside the board. They make Surakarta unique: you may only capture if your piece goes around at least one loop on the way.
Goal of the game
The goal is to capture all twelve of your opponent's pieces. Whoever first removes every enemy piece from the board wins – or whose opponent resigns or runs out of time.
The board
The board consists of 6×6 lines with 36 intersections – the playing points. Columns are labelled a to f (left to right), rows 1 to 6 (top to bottom). a1 is top left, f6 bottom right. The special twist: eight loops run outside the board, each connecting two edge points.
- Top and bottom: an outer loop spanning the full width and an inner loop over the middle four points.
- Left and right: an outer loop spanning the full height and an inner loop over the middle four points.
- The loops are not part of the regular line grid – they only count when a piece goes around them as an arc.
The setup
White places its twelve pieces on the two top rows, Black on the two bottom rows. White moves first. In a friendly game you may also agree that Black starts.
The moves
Normal move
A piece moves exactly one step onto a free neighbouring point – in all eight directions, including diagonals. Capturing is not allowed in a normal move.
Capture via the loops
A piece moves any distance along the lines, goes around at least one of the eight loops outside the board and lands on an enemy piece, which is removed. Diagonal captures do not exist.
- The path must be clear: no piece – yours or your opponent's – may stand on any intermediate point.
- At least one loop must be traversed – moving in a straight line alone does not capture.
- Several loops in a row within the same move are allowed – the more elegant the arc, the better.
The end of the game
A game ends in several ways:
- One player has no pieces left – the other wins.
- Both players are left with no pieces after the same move (double capture) – the game is a draw.
- Threefold repetition of the same position ends the game automatically in a draw.
- Resignation or timeout – the opponent wins.
Elo ratings
Rated games change your Elo. You start at 1000 points; wins against stronger opponents earn more, losses against weaker ones cost more. Friendly games and guest bot games stay unrated.
Three tips to get started
- Control the loops: pieces on loop endpoints threaten many fields at once.
- Keep your pieces together – isolated pieces are quickly trapped via the arcs.
- Plan capture sequences: a good arc often takes two pieces in a row.