Glass Bead Game
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About
Strategy
Games
Read Me
Rules
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Object & Endgame
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The Rules
(1: Movement &
Capture)
The Glass Bead Game belongs to the mancala family. There are two players,
north and south. The board with the beads in the initial
position can be seen in the diagram below.
The board consists of two rows of five pits and two cups
for collecting captured beads. Each player controls the five pits and the cup on his side.
In the initial position each pit contains one stone and one
gem.
- Gems can be captured and range in point value from 1 to 5 as indicated.
- Stones cannot be captured: they're always in the pits and have no point value.
- Players move and must move in turn. South moves first. On his turn a player selects a pit
on his own side of the board, picks up all the beads in it, and
sows them, one at the time, into the other pits around the board, moving in a
counterclockwise direction. No beads are sown into the cups.
- A player is free to choose which bead to drop in which pit.
No pit may receive more than one bead unless there are enough beads to go around the board
more than once. No pit may be skipped except the pit whose contents are moved: this pit
must be skipped.
So if the original pit contains more than nine beads, the tenth bead is sown into the same
pit as the first, and any additional beads continue to be sown counterclockwise, as usual.
Single Capture
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If the last bead sown is a stone that falls into a pit
on the opponent's side of the board, and if that opponent's pit contained
exactly one bead before the stone was placed there, the player making the move
makes a capture.
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It's irrelevant whether the single bead in the opponent's pit was there in the first place,
or whether it was placed there by the moving player as part of the same turn, in a move involving
enough beads to go around the board and into the opponent's pits once again.
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What is captured depends on the single bead in the final pit:
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If it is a gem, it is captured, which means that it is removed from the pit and placed in the
player's cup. This is known as direct capture.
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If it is a stone, the player may choose any gem from any of the opponent's pits and place it
in his cup. This is known as indirect capture.
If there are no gems on the opponent's side of the board, the player may choose any gem from
his opponent's cup instead (no gem is ever completely safe till the game is over).
If the opponent's cup is empty too, no capture is made.
Multiple Capture
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If the last two or more beads sown are stones that fall into pits
on the opponent's side of the board, and
if each of these opponent's pits in an unbroken row counting
backwards from the last contained exactly one gem before the stones
were placed there, the player making the move makes a direct
multiple capture of all gems involved.
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If the last two or more beads sown are stones that fall into pits
on the opponent's side of the board, and
if each of these opponent's pits in an unbroken row counting
backwards from the last contained exactly one gem before the stones
were placed there, the player making the move makes an indirect multiple
capture, which means that he may choose one gem for every pit involved, from his opponent's pits.
If there are no or an insufficient number of gems on the opponent's side of the board,
the player may proceed to choose any gems from his opponent's cup instead,
till he reaches the appointed number or till no more gems are available.
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