Sz'kwa

Sz'kwa commences with board vacant of counters.

Alternate Names

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

A Sz’kwa board and twenty each of black and white counters are required for play. The game is often played in China with a board scratched in the sand and pebbles.

History

This game is primarily played by children in Taiwan and mainland China. It is a simplified version of Go and is sometimes thought or claimed to be the ancestor of Go. Although Sz'kwa probably is also a very ancient game there is no evidence for this other than the fact that Sz'kwa is a more simplistic version of Go. This, however, could imply that it was a Go derivative created for children just as well.

Objective

The goal is to capture the most opposing counters.

Play

Commencing with the board vacant of counters, the two players decide which color they will play and who will play first. Alternate turns entail the placement of a single friendly counter at any vacant position (intersection or node) on the board. Opposing counters are captured when they become completely surrounded by friendly counters. The game ends when there are no more vacant positions to play onto or when one player has exhausted all of their counters.

Variations

Sources

1. http://nrich.maths.org/1196

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sz%27Kwa