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