Field Gonu

Alternate Names

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

A 2x2 square grid and three each of black and white counters are required for play.

History

There are many Gonu games, which are traditional board games originating from Korea. They are typically played on a makeshift board drawn in the dirt, sand or stone with distinguishable stones used for counters. The fact that the boards are drawn probably adds to their fluidity and there are numerous variations of Gonu games. Typically, they are simple children’s games. They may be blockading games, or they may utilize jumping capture, capture by custodianship, or some combination of blockading and capture. This Gonu game is a simple blockade game.

Objective

Both player’s objective is to block any legal move by their opponent. The first player to do so being the winner.

Play

Counters are played at the intersections and the game opens with the counters positioned as shown above. Alternate turns entail the orthogonal movement of a single friendly counter to an adjacent vacant intersection on the board.

Sources