1. Surakarta is played on a 6-by-6 square board consisting of 36 spaces. Loops extend out the corners of the rows of play spaces, these indicate capturing moves.

2. Each player selects 12 BEADs the colour of their choice.

3. BEADs are placed on the spaces in the two rows on the player’s side of the board.

4. Players decide who begins the game by rolling a die.

1. In turns, players move 1 BEAD a space to an unoccupied space either horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

2. A BEAD cannot occupy the same play space as another BEAD.

3. Players capture BEADs by moving their BEAD around any of the loops on the board until an opponent’s BEAD is reached which is then captured. All spaces between the start of the move and the BEAD being captured must be empty.

4. There is no limit to the number of empty spaces or loops that a BEAD can travel across during the capture move.

5. If more than one opponent’s BEAD is in a row during a capture move, a player can capture all the BEADs until there is a break in the row.

6. BEADs can only use the loops to move during a capture.

7. Captured BEADs are removed from the board.

1. To win the game, a player must capture all their opponent’s BEADs.

2. If capturing all an opponent’s BEADS is impossible, the player with the most BEADs is the winner.

1. Surakarta is a little-known Indonesian strategy board game for two players, named after the ancient city of Surakarta in central Java.

2. The real name of the game is permainan (meaning the game in Bahasa Indonesia). In Java, the game is also called dam-daman. It was first published in France in 1970 as "Surakarta". The game is called "Roundabouts" in Sid Sackson's The Book of Classic Board Games.

3. Traditional Indonesian game pieces that were used were shells, pebbles or stones, with the board grid inscribed in sand or volcanic ash.