Yoté

Yoté begins with board vacant.

Alternate Names

Yote

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

A 5x6 square grid with twelve each of black and white counters are required for play. In Africa, stones of different colors are typically used for the counters, so I will refer to the counters as stones.

History

Yote is a traditional game played in West Africa.

Objective

A player wins when they capture all of their opponent’s stones.

Play

Each player begins with twelve stones in a reserve. Alternate turns entail either the deployment of one stone from the reserve to any vacant cell on the board, or the movement of one stone already on the board. When moving a stone, a player may either move to an orthogonally adjacent vacant square or may orthogonally short jump an enemy stone to a necessarily vacant square on the opposite side, thereby removing the enemy stone from the board. Multiple enchained captures in one turn are allowed and direction may be changed after each jump. Capture is not compulsory. In addition, for every jump and capture a player makes in a turn, they may then capture an equal number of other enemy stone(s) from any position on the board, but not one in the opponent’s reserve. The game ends in a draw if both players are left with three or fewer stones. In the rare situation that a player does not have a legal move available, the game is over and the player with a larger number of stones wins.

Sources

1. Pentagames. Compiled by Pentagram. 1990. Fireside, Simon & Schuster Inc. ISBN 0-671-72529-7.