How to play Congkak in Malaysia
It was a cloudy afternoon in the island of Langkawi, when I first played Congkak. Apit and Chong had showed us around the island and stopped at a giant playing board. “Ever tried?”, Apit asked, knowing that I was a big fan of new games. I hadn’t tried it before, but I had seen some people playing and I was eager to learn.
Congkak is an old game, brought to Southeast Asia via Malacca back in the 15th Century and it was played by the King and his family before it found its way to the General population. Nowadays it is so popular that the playing board is printed of the backside of the 10 Sen coin (0.1 Ringgit).
The name Congkak might come from the old Malay word Congak, (Mental Calculation), and that’s what the game is all about.
Usually Congkak is played by two players each seated on one side if the long Congkak board. The board has fourteen small holes in two rows of seven.
On each far end of the board there is one bigger hole. The smaller holes are called Rumah (house) and the big ones are Kampung (village). Sometimes the big ones are called houses and the small ones Anak (children). The small houses are filled with tokens. The Malaysians are rather creative with their choice of tokens.
They can be stones, coins, seeds, shells or bottle caps. We played with stones, but the most traditional tokens are shells. Each player has one row of seven houses in front of him/her and every hole is filled with seven stones. The big villages remain empty. The aim of the game is to bring as many stones as possible into the village.
The first move is played simultaneously by both players. Both players can chose one of their houses to start with. They grab every stone in the house and then spread them clockwise to the other houses, one stone for each.
Players leave one stone in their own village, but not in the opponent’s village. If a player drops his last remaining stone in a house (on either side of the board) with minimum one other stone in it, he/she grabs all stones and continues distributing. If the last stone falls into the player’s village, he/she can chose any of his/her holes to start a new move from.
If he/she drops his last stone in an empty house of his/her own side, he/she can now grab all stones from the house right opposite plus the last stone from his/her hand and place them in their own village. After this, the player’s move is over. If the last stone falls into one of the opponent’s house that does not contain any other stones, the player’s move is over and the last stone remains in the opponent’s house.
The player who finished his/her move first, waits until the other player is finished as well and then he/she starts his/her second move. When a player has no more stones in any of his houses, he/she needs to pass and wait until the opponent drops a stone on his/her side.
When there are no more stones in any of the houses, both players count the quantity of stones in their own village. The player with most stones is the round’s winner.
This game has simple rules and all you need is a board and 98 seeds, stones, shells or other tokens.
I could have spent all afternoon playing Congkak. It is simple and fun and can be played on windy days.
Seems like a lot of fun! Perhaps it could be played with bowls and glass marbles.