Yoté

How to play Yoté

From the book's pages

• Five rows of six holes dug in the ground. Two players with twelve pieces each: one has pebbles, the other wooden sticks. Both try to capture the opponent's pieces.
• The player with the pebbles begins and places a pebble in a hole of his choice. Then the other places a stick in another hole. Only one piece is placed at a time, and no one needs to place all his pieces before he starts moving: pieces can be kept in reserve for later.
• The pieces move one square forward, sideways or backward, never diagonally, and only to an empty hole.
• A piece is captured by jumping over it and removing it from the board. In addition, the one who captures has the right to remove one more of the opponent's pieces from the board, whichever he likes.
• Most games end quickly, but a game can end in a draw when both have three or fewer pieces on the board.

My choices

• Each turn is either placing a piece from the hand, moving, or jumping; one jump per turn, straight forward, sideways or backward.
• The extra piece is taken from those on the board, straight after the jump; you may decline.
• Whoever has no pieces left, or can neither place nor move, has lost. A draw when both have three or fewer on the board, none in hand, and nothing has been captured in forty moves.
• The machine looks a few moves ahead, with a piece in hand worth almost one on the board.

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