Toguz Kumalak

Alternate Names

Toguz Korgol, Toguz Korgool

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

The Toguz Kumalak board has two rows of nine holes each with two additional storage pits called kazna. The kazna are usually placed between the two rows, rather than at the ends as is common from other Mancala games. At the beginning there are nine undifferentiated stones in each hole, except the kazna, which are empty, so players need a total of 162 stones.

History

Toguz Kumalak is played in central Asia. It is well known is Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan but has spread into Europe as well.

Objective

The winner is the player who, at the end of the game, has captured more stones in their tuzdik and their kazna. When each player has 81 stones, the game is a draw.

Play

With alternating turns, each player takes all of the stones from one of the holes on his side of the board, which is not a tuzdik (see below) and distribute them anticlockwise, one by one, into the following holes. The first stone to be sowed must be dropped into the hole from which was just emptied.

However, if the move began from a hole, which contained only one stone, this stone is put into the next hole.

If the last stone sowed falls into a hole on the opponent's side, and this hole now contains an even number of stones, these balls are captured and stored in the player's kazan.

If the last stone falls into a hole of the opponent, which then has three stones, the hole is marked as a tuzdik ("sacred place" in Kazakh; or tuz in Kyrgyz, which means "salt"). A player may, however, only create one tuzdik in each game. The last hole of the opponent (his ninth or rightmost hole) cannot be turned into a tuzdik. A tuzdik cannot be made if it is symmetrical to the opponent's one (for example, if the opponent's third hole is a tuzdik, you cannot turn your third hole into one). It is permitted to make such a move, but it wouldn't create a tuzdik. The stones that fall into a tuzdik are captured by its owner. He may transfer its contents at any time to his kazan.

The game ends when a player can't move at his turn because all the holes on his side, which are not tuzdik, are empty.

When the game is over, the remaining stones, which are not yet in a kazan or in a tuzdik are won by the player on whose side they are.

The winner is the player who, at the end of the game, has captured more stones in their tuzdik and their kazan. When both players have 81 stones, the game is a draw.

Variations

A closely related game called Piç has been described from the village of Oguzkent near Erzurum, Turkey. It may demonstrate that a precursor of Toguz Kumalak must already have existed when Turkish people migrated from Central Asia to Anatolia in the 12th century.

Sources

1. Toguz korgol at Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toguz_korgol

2. Toguz korgol at Mancala World. http://mancala.wikia.com/wiki/Toguz_Kumalak