Congklak

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Congklak
Ranks Two
Sowing Multilap
Region Indonesia

Congklak is a mancala game played in Indonesia (Borneo), Singapore, and Malaysia. Minor variants are known as Tchonka, Naranj, Dakon or Sungka and are played in other parts of Indonesia (mostly Java), Sri Lanka, the Maldives, southern Thailand, the Philippines and the Marianas. The name "Congklak" comes from the Indonesian name for cowrie shells, which are often used as pieces.

Contents

[edit] Rules

[edit] Equipment

The Congklak board has fourteen holes in two sets of seven, plus an additional store for each player. Each player controls the seven holes on their side of the board, and their score is the number of seeds in their left-hand store.

The pieces are 98 undifferentiated seeds.

[edit] Setup

Seven seeds are placed in each hole except the stores, which remain empty.

[edit] Objective

The objective of the game is to capture more seeds than one's opponent.

[edit] Sowing

Players take turns moving the seeds except in the first move which is performed simultaneously. On a turn, a player chooses one of the seven holes under their control. The player removes all seeds from this hole, and distributes them in each hole clockwise from this hole, in a process called sowing. Sowing skips an opponent's store, but does not skip a player's own store.

If the last seed falls into an occupied hole, all the seeds are removed from that hole, and are sown starting from that hole. The process continues until the last seed falls into a player's store, or an empty hole.

If the last seed sown falls into a player's own store, they immediately earn another turn, which can begin at any of the seven holes under their control.

[edit] Capturing

If the last seed sown falls into an empty hole on the current player's side, then the player captures all the seeds in the hole directly across from this one, on the opponent's side. If the opposing hole is empty, no seeds are captured.

[edit] External links