Yoté

Yoté is played mainly in West Africa (Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso). It is very popular especially because of its simple rules. The frequent turnarounds in the matches make it a pleasant and fast game, which sometimes gives rise to the fact that some people are engaged in betting.

It is usual to be played on a board made of small holes on the ground, and with pebbles and sticks as pieces.

How to play

It is a 2 players game with a 6x5 board with no side assigned to anyone. Each player starts with 12 pieces in his hand (reserve). You choose who gets started (random in Bodogemu).

At each turn you have to do one of 3 possible actions:

1. Put a piece of your hand in an empty house on the board.
2. Move one of your pieces on the board orthogonally one position to an adjacent free house, that is, just up and down, left and right. It is not allowed diagonally.
3. Capture an opponent's piece by jumping a piece of yours on the board orthogonally over one of the opposing opponent falling into a free house. The opponent's piece is captured and removed from the board.
   When you capture a piece you can choose any other one from your opponent's that is on the board and also capture it! However, this second capture is not mandatory.

Ending the game

The player who captures all the pieces of the opponent wins.

If no player can take a valid action wins who has more pieces on the board.

If both player are reduced to 3 or less stones and do not have a capture action the game ends tied.

Note: The optional multi-capture rule is not yet implemented.