Dara

How to play Dara

Not from the book. Dara is played by the Dakarkari in Nigeria, and in Niger among the Zarma, who call it dili; the rules follow the account on Wikipedia. One source dates it to the nineteenth century or earlier, another says it was first recorded around 1950.

From the sources

• The board is a 5×6 square board. Each player has twelve pieces, black and white — any two colours will do. Players decide among themselves who starts first.
• First the pieces are dropped: the players alternate placing a piece on an empty square until all twenty-four are down. Three-in-a-rows made during the drop phase do not count. In Niger it is not allowed to make a three-in-a-row during the drop phase.
• Then the players take turns moving their pieces orthogonally into an adjacent empty cell.
• Three in a line, along a row or a column — never diagonally — takes one enemy piece from the board which is not part of a three-in-a-row itself. Four or more pieces formed in a row are illegal. A move that makes two threes at once takes only one piece.
• If a player can no longer make three-in-a-rows with their remaining pieces — two pieces left — that player has lost.

My choices

• While dropping, a three may be made and counts for nothing, as in Nigeria; a drop that would make four is not allowed, as the ban on four applies there too.
• A three takes only when the moved piece is part of it; a three opened and closed again takes again. When every enemy piece stands in a three, nothing is taken.
• A side that cannot move has lost. Fifty moves without a piece taken is a draw; the sources give no rule for it.
• White drops first. The machine looks a few moves ahead: pieces first, then threes, then a square where a step would make one.

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