Eson Xorgol

Alternate Names

Eson Khorgol

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

A Mancala board of 2x5 cups and 90 counters that are traditionally dried goat droppings are required for play. Beans, beads, pebbles or any other object may also be used for counters. Usually the holes are dug into the earth, but wooden boards also exist.

History

This is a game of the Mancala family that is played in Kazakhstan and by the Kazakh minority in the Aimag Province of Bayan Ölgii in north-western Mongolia. The game was first described in 1963.

Objective

The objective is to capture more beans (or dried goat feces) than your opponent.

Play

The game commences with nine counters placed in each pit. Unlike many other mancala games, pits are not owned by particular players. Players take turn sowing pieces clockwise around the board. (This is the opposite direction of most mancala games.) Sowing is accomplished by selecting a pit, removing all the pieces from that pit, and dropping them one-by-one in each subsequent pit, until all have been used. A capture is made when sowing ends in an occupied pit immediately followed by an unoccupied pit. When this occurs, all pieces in the pit across from the pit in which the sowing ended are captured.

Variations

Sources

1. Eson xorgol at Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eson_xorgol