Mandoli
From Wikimanqala
Mandoli
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|---|
| Played in: Greece |
| One cycle |
| Single lap |
| 6 holes per row |
| Two rows |
Mandoli ("almonds") was played in the Cyclades, Greece, in the second half of the 18th and the first half of the 19th century.
A mancala game played in the Levantine was shown by the Swiss miniaturist Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702-1789) in his painting "Deux dames grecques ou franques assises sur un divan et jouant au mankala'h" (Sanguine et pierre noire (14,8 cm x 21,7 cm)). Later the Scottish traveller John Galt observed mandoli on the Greek island of Hydra in 1810.
The game appears to be influenced by other Mancala games played in the Osman Empire, such as halusa and mangala.
Rules
The board consists of two rows of six holes. Each player controls one row. Initially there can be four, five or six almonds in each hole as agreed before the game.
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| Possible initial position |
At his turn, a player distributes the contents of a hole, one by one, in a counter-clockwise direction into the succeeding holes.
If the last seed is sown into a hole of either side, making it even, its contents are taken.
If this hole is preceded by an unbroken sequence of even holes, their contents are also captured.
When a player has no almonds left on his side, his opponent must make a move, if possible, which would leave him something to play with. A similar rule exists in oware.
A player must move when he can.
The game ends when a player is unable to move. The almonds still left on the board are then captured by his opponent.
The player with the larger number of captured almonds wins the game.
References
- Galt, J.
- (1813) Letters from the Levant, London: 242.
- Munro, K.
- (2003) Greek Mandoli; [Web site] [March 28].
- Santos Silva, E.
- (1994) O Ouri: Um Jogo Caboverdiano e a sua prática em Portugal, Lisboa: Associação de Professores de Matématica.
