Gol-skuish
Gol-skuish is a two-player abstract strategy game from India, specifically from Central Provinces. The game belongs to the draughts and Alquerque family as enemy pieces are captured by hopping over them. The board is composed of seven concentric circles intersected with six lines radiating from the central point of the board. Gol-skuish belongs to a specific category of games called Indian War-games which include Lau kata kati, Dash-guti, Egara-guti, and Pretwa. At the beginning of every Indian War-game all the pieces are laid out on the board at every intersection point, with the exception of the central point. This forces the first move of the game to be played on the central point, and captured by the second player's piece.
Gol-skuish is a larger version of the game Pretwa.
Goal
To capture all of the opponent's pieces, or reduce your opponent's pieces to five, or be the one with more pieces when no more pieces can be taken by either player, or stalemate the other opponent's pieces such that they are immobilized.
Equipment
The board consist of seven concentric circles intersected by six lines which radiate from the central point of the board. Pieces are played on the intersection points, and there are a total of 43 intersection points.
Each player has 21 pieces. One plays the black pieces, and the other plays the white pieces.
Game Play and Rules
1. In the beginning, Black places its 21 pieces on the intersection points of three adjacent lines radiating from the central point. White does the same. The only intersection point vacant is the central point.
2. Throughout the game, players alternate their turns by either performing a non-capturing move or a capturing move with one of their pieces.
Non-capturing move: A piece moves one space onto a vacant adjacent intersection point following the pattern on the board.
Capturing move: The capturing move is the short leap method as in Draughts and Alquerque. A player's piece hops over an adjacent enemy piece landing onto a vacant point immediately beyond following the pattern on the board. The short leap must either be completed exclusively in the direction of a concentric circle, or in the direction of a radiating line, however in a multiple capturing scenario the player's piece may continue on capturing in different directions. Captures are compulsory. Multiple captures are allowed and compulsory. If there are several options to capture in one turn, the player may choose any one of them. Captured pieces are removed from the board.
5. If a player cannot perform a move because its pieces have been immobilized by the other player's pieces, this is known as a stalemate, and the player loses; the other player wins.
6. If neither player can capture anymore pieces, then the player with more pieces wins. If both players have the same amount of pieces, then the game is a draw.
7. The player whose number of pieces are first reduced to five is the loser, and the other player is the winner.
Related Games
Pretwa, Lau kata kati, Dash-guti, Egara-guti, Butterfly (game), Draughts, Alquerque