How to play Togyz Kumalak

Togyz kumalak - "nine stones" in Kazakh - is the great sowing game of the Kazakh steppe, and under the name toguz korgool it is just as loved in Kyrgyzstan. It belongs to the mancala family, but it is played on a bigger board than most: two rows of nine pits with nine stones in each, 162 in all. Today it has national federations, an international federation, world championships and a place on UNESCO's list of intangible heritage.

What sets togyz kumalak apart is the tuzdyk. Once in a game you can claim one of your opponent's pits for good, and every stone that ever falls into it afterwards is yours. Deciding when to take a tuzdyk, and stopping your opponent from taking one, is the heart of the game.

How to play on skill.games

In the settings popup choose a difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard or Crazy) and press PLAY. You always move first. Your nine pits are the row nearest you; the two long trays at the ends are the kazans, where captured stones are kept, yours on the right. On a phone held upright the board turns so it fits the screen: your row is on the left and your kazan is at the bottom.

• Your pits glow: on your turn every pit you may sow from has a gold ring.
• Sowing: tap one of your glowing pits. You can also press and slide: the pit under your finger lights up and a dotted ring shows where its last stone will land. Lift your finger to sow.
• Counts: the number of stones in every pit and kazan is shown beside it, so you never have to count a heap.
• The sowing hand: the stones hop from pit to pit one at a time, with the number still in hand riding along.
• Captures fly into the kazan with a +n over it.
• Tuzdyks are marked with a star: white for yours, gold for the computer's. A stone that falls into a tuzdyk flies straight on to its owner's kazan. TUZDYK! or BOT'S TUZDYK is announced when one is made.
• The latest move: a small red dot marks the pit the last move was sown from.
• Score line: the top of the screen shows how many stones each side has in its kazan and whose turn it is.

The menu button in the top-left corner pauses the game and lets you resume, start a new game or switch the sound on or off. The "?" button opens this guide. The game is saved at every turn, so an unfinished game can be picked up later with CONTINUE.

At the end the winner's kazan lights up, then the results screen shows the stones each side collected, the number of moves and how the game ended, together with your statistics for that difficulty: wins, losses, draws, win rate, current streak and best streak.

Rules

• The board has two rows of nine pits; each player owns the row nearest them. Every pit starts with nine stones.
• Sowing: on your turn take all the stones from one of your pits and sow them one at a time counter-clockwise, putting the first stone back into the pit you took them from. If the pit held a single stone, it simply moves to the next pit. A big pit can go all the way round the board.
• Capture: if your last stone lands in one of your opponent's pits and makes the number of stones there even, you take them all into your kazan. Only that one pit is taken. Landing in your own row never captures.
• Tuzdyk: if your last stone makes an opponent's pit hold exactly three, that pit becomes your tuzdyk: you take the three stones, and from then on every stone that falls into that pit - sown by either player - goes to you.
• Tuzdyk limits: each player can make only one tuzdyk in a game, and it stays for the rest of the game. The opponent's ninth pit (the last one before your row) can never become a tuzdyk. And you cannot take the pit with the same number as your opponent's tuzdyk: if theirs is your pit 4, you cannot take their pit 4. When a tuzdyk is not allowed, the move is still played and the three stones simply stay where they are.
• Winning: the first player to collect 82 stones, more than half, wins. If both reach 81, the game is a draw.
• No move (atsyz): if on your turn every one of your pits is empty, the game ends. Each player then takes the stones still lying on their own side, and the player with more stones wins.

Strategy tips

• Count where the last stone falls. A pit with n stones (more than one) ends n - 1 pits further on, because the first stone goes back into it. Before each move, find which of your pits end in an opponent pit holding an odd number: that move captures.
• Leave odd counts behind you. Your opponent captures by making your pits even. A pit holding an odd number is safe only from a stone that keeps it odd, so look at what each of the computer's pits can reach before you move.
• Hunt for twos. An opponent pit with exactly two stones is a tuzdyk waiting for you if one of your pits ends there. Pits with two stones on your own side are the danger in the other direction.
• Take the tuzdyk early, and well placed. A tuzdyk taken in the opening collects stones for the rest of the game. One close to the start of your opponent's row is passed by many of their sowings and by your long ones; one near the end of their row earns less.
• Remember the number rule. Once the computer has a tuzdyk, the pit with the same number on its side is out of reach for yours. Plan your tuzdyk with that in mind, and sometimes take yours first just to block the pit the computer wants.
• Build a big pit. A pit of twenty or more stones sows round the whole board and can land anywhere you choose. Saved for the right moment, it makes a capture the computer cannot prevent.
• Watch the end count. When the board thins out, keep stones on your side: if the computer runs out of moves, everything left on your side is yours.

Difficulty levels

• Easy: plays a random pit about a third of the time; otherwise it takes the biggest capture it can see right now.
• Normal: looks three moves ahead and sometimes plays at random.
• Hard: looks seven moves ahead and knows what a tuzdyk is worth.
• Crazy: searches as deep as it can in the time it has, values tuzdyks and the stones on each side, and near the end of a game sees it through to the finish. To beat it, win the fight for the tuzdyks and build your lead in the middle game.