kalah

Kalah, called in the English language Kalah, is a modern strategy game of Mancala family ( from Arabic: . Naqalah = move ) for two players. Mancala (also: Mankala, Manqala ) the scientific genus term ( generic term ) for a group of board games, in which the contents of wells according to certain rules is redistributed. In Germany they also used the term bean games.

History

The game was in 1940 by the U.S. tax advisor William Julius Champion ( 1880-1972 ) in Mystic, Connecticut invented. The idea he got in 1905, when he was at Yale University ( New Haven, Connecticut) was reading an article about the Chicago World's Fair (1893 ), which reports on Mancala games. The game first appeared in 1944 on the U.S. market and was produced from 1958 by founded by champion for this purpose Kalah Game Company. Champion left his game in 1952 (design) and 1955 (rules) patented. The brand name was registered in the USA from 1970 to 2002. Nevertheless, it found many imitators, including Conference ( Mieg 's, 1965), Sahara ( Pelican, 1976) and Bantumi (on Nokia phones since 2000).

Kalah is almost identical to Dakon (Java) and Congkak (Malaysia), two Asian mancala variants. The biggest difference is that when Kalaha ends with the distribution of the last seed of the turn, while the Malayan playing the train will continue if the last seed comes in a game filled trough. The main similarities are that the profit wells are taken into account when distributing the seeds and follow the bonus features, if the last seed falls into its own profit trough.

The first Kalaha computer program was developed at MIT in 1960 by Wiley. In 1978, Paul Erich Frielinghaus the 5th place in the national Young Scientists competition with his Kalaha program ( he called the game Serata ). A Kalaha program written in the FORTRAN programming language was 1978/79 also developed by Wolfgang Stahn, runner-up of the national competition Young Scientists of the Year 1980, which then, however, won this award together with Kai Himstedt with a chess program. The Mancala variants with up to six stones per well, and board sizes up to six wells were of Donkers et al. dissolved in 2001, with the exception of Kalah (6, 6). With perfect game usually wins the attracting players, but there are also situations in which the subsequently immigrating player at an advantage or the game ends in a draw.

A large Kalaha tournament with 32 participants was 1963 at the Coolidge School in Holbrook, Massachusetts ( USA), rather than. It was won by Ira Burnim. Today, every year there are more than 50 Kalaha tournaments in the U.S., mostly from schools, youth centers, museums and libraries organized. Kalah is used by the Kellogg Electronic Research Academy in Chicago to promote pupils who suffer from dyscalculia.

In Germany there was Kalaha projects at the Friedrich- Rückert High School in Berlin, the Lamberti school in Coesfeld and Erich Klausener school in Adenau.

The oldest Mancala game boards have been found in the north- western Ethiopia in Matara and Yeha and date back to around the 6th - 8th Century AD It is true that depression ranks in the temple area of Qurna were ( 1400 BC ), Egypt, Cyprus and in different places in Sri Lanka discovered, but you still do not know whether this is at all is game boards, and, if so, which games were played on it. The dating of these findings is extremely difficult. The trough rows of Qurna probably evolved only 1700 years after the construction of the Temple, as well near the same time, Coptic crosses were engraved. Nevertheless, it is often claimed that Mancala games " 5,000 years " are what one can safely be called a modern myth. In this way, already tried to increase sales of his game champion.

Despite the very simple rules of the game Mancala offers many tactical options.

Regulate

Material

The Mancala game board consists of two dump rows of six playing pits. Also located at each end of a larger profit trough, also known as Kalah, which receives the captured seeds during the game. Each player include six playing pits on his side of the board and the location right by him profit trough.

Preparation

At the beginning of the game all game hollows are filled with three or four seeds. Usually the last winner starts the new game.

Target

The objective of the game is to collect more seeds than the opponent. Since there are only 36 seeds ranging 19 to achieve this. Since there are an even number of seeds, a draw is possible if both players at the end of 18 seeds call their own.

Gameplay

Example round:

The lower player starts from the highlighted game trough to distribute the seeds.

Since the last seed has fallen into its earnings trough, he gets an extra round.

The last seed is dropped into an empty bowl game, the opposite to a filled trough, so he gets the lower players highlighted seeds.

The rounds of the player exist in the seeds moving in the wells. If a player 's turn, he chooses one of his playing pits, takes its content and distributes it counterclockwise in the subsequent wells. It is a seed in each well, except in the opponent's profit trough placed.

Extra round

If the last seed lands in their own earnings trough, the active player gains an extra round (or bonus - train ). This allows the player to repeat more than once and may then continue playing each.

Catch

If the last seed lands in an empty bowl game of the active player and directly opposite in the opponent trough one or more seeds are both the last seed and the opposite seeds are captured and placed into their own seeds in the profit trough.

Gambling

The game ends when a train after all playing pits a player are empty. The other player empties his playing pits and also lays the seeds in its earnings trough. The winner is the player with the most seeds in its income trough.

Variants

Instead of having three seeds can also be played with four, five or six seeds per well. Makes the game much more challenging. Computer scientists also examined other board sizes with one to six stones per well. Another variation is cross- Kalah, which was invented by the Americans W. Dan Troyka in 2001.