How to play Toguz Korgool: Toguz Korgool rules and the tuzdik

The board and the stones

Each player has 9 pits and a kazan (store) in front of them. At the start every pit holds 9 stones; 162 stones in all. The kazans sit in the middle of the board and are not part of the sowing: stones travel only around the 18 pits, anticlockwise. Each player's pits are numbered 1 to 9 from their own left to right.

The move

1. Take all the stones from a pit with stones on your side.
2. Drop the first stone back into the pit you took them from, then the rest one by one into the pits to the right; they can carry on around onto your opponent's side.
3. If the pit holds a single stone, that stone moves to the next pit and the pit is left empty.
4. A tuzdik pit can't be played by the player on whose side it is.

Even captures

If your last stone lands in an opponent's pit and makes its count even (2, 4, 6…), all the stones in that pit go to your kazan. If the last stone lands on your own side, or the opponent's pit is left odd, nothing is taken and the turn passes to your opponent. Unlike Mangala, a last stone never lands in the kazan for another turn; the kazans never take part in the sowing.

The tuzdik

If your last stone makes an opponent's pit exactly 3, that pit becomes your tuzdik and you take the 3 stones in it. From then on, every stone that falls into that pit goes to your kazan, no matter who sowed it. In Kyrgyz, "tuz" means salt, just as it does in Turkish.

• Each player can claim only one tuzdik per game.
• The opponent's 9th pit (the rightmost) can't become a tuzdik.
• The pit with the same number as your opponent's tuzdik can't become a tuzdik (if your opponent's tuzdik is your 3rd pit, you can't make their 3rd pit a tuzdik).
• If one of the conditions isn't met, the move is still valid, but no tuzdik is claimed and no stones are taken.

Winning and draws

• Whoever collects more than half of the 162 stones, that is 82 stones, wins the game at once.
• If both sides end on 81-81, the game is a draw.
• If the player to move has no playable pit left, the game ends; the stones left on the board go to the player whose side they are on, and the kazans are counted.

The computer opponent

There is no luck in the game; the computer calculates its moves with exactly the same rules engine you play with, and weighs the value of a tuzdik according to where the pit is. Easy makes a mistake now and then, Medium looks a few moves ahead, and Hard calculates much more deeply. When you hold down a pit, the spot where the last stone will land glows (off on Hard).

Common mistakes

• Expecting the last stone to land in the kazan: in Toguz Korgool the kazans are not part of the sowing.
• Putting the first stone into the next pit: the first stone goes back into the pit the stones were taken from.
• Trying to claim a second tuzdik: each player can claim only one tuzdik per game.
• Trying to make your opponent's 9th pit a tuzdik: the rightmost pit can't become a tuzdik.
• Aiming at the pit in the same position as your opponent's tuzdik: a symmetrical tuzdik can't be claimed.
• Leaving stones that fall into your own tuzdik to your opponent: whoever sows into a tuzdik, the stone goes to the tuzdik's owner; take your opponent's sowing path into account.