Queah

Queah Opening Position

Alternate Names

The true name of this game is not known. It was first recorded by the games historian HJR Murray as an unnamed game from the Queah Tribe of Liberia. Subsequent games historians have adopted the name Queah or Liberian Queah.

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

A Queah board and ten each of black and white counters are required for play. This game board was traditionally made of interwoven sticks and the counters with sticks. One player's sticks were cut with tops aslant representing men and the others with tops cut flat and representing women.

History

This game was first recorded by the games historian, HJR Murray, as an unnamed game from the Queah Tribe of Liberia.

Objective

The goal is to capture all of the opponent’s counters, the first player to achieve this being the winner. A player may also win by blocking any legal move by his opponent. If it is agreed that a draw seems imminent, the player with more counters may declare victory.

Play

Each player places four of their ten counters on the cells of the board, as above. Their remaining six counters are placed in a reserve. Alternate turns between players entail moving a single counter to any adjacent vacant cell or a short jump over an opponent’s counter in a straight line to a vacant cell just beyond the counter being jumped. Technically, counters move and jump orthogonally, although the terms orthogonal and diagonal can be misleading in this game due to the shape of the board. To clarify, counters move to a cell that shares a side with the one they are in, not to ones that only share a corner. Counters are captured by the short jump and are then removed from the board and do not reenter. A player may only capture one opposing counter per turn, multiple captures are not allowed. After a player's counter is captured, they begin the the next turn with the deployment of a new counter from their reserve to any vacant position on the board, followed by a normal move or jump. A player may only enter a single new counter immediately after one of their counters have been captured and do this until their reserve is depleted. A player may never have more than four of their counters on the board and may only have less than four after their reserve is depleted.

On any turn that it is possible to take an opponent’s counter it is compulsory to do so. Huffing, however, should be prohibited so as not to allow a player to take more than one opposing counter per turn.

Strategy

Note that there are only five cells on the board where a counter is vulnerable to be jumped and captured: the center and its four adjacent cells. The four cells that touch the center cell at the corners are powerful positions as counters here may jump and capture counters at the four cells adjacent to the center cell and land in a another safe cell. Games are often won in the endgame by the player with the more advantageous positions.

Sources