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Thailand traditional game : Congkak

Congkak is unrivalled of the far-famed traditional games in Thailand. This game is very famous within this region. If you would like to explore more on congkak, this site are the perfect site for you to understand around it.

There came few mode to play congkak which the tool also is very basic. Previously and I trusted that several of the persons in the former day might play congkak having exclusively some stone as the tools.

What is congkak.
Congkak is a Thailand traditional games and also a few other neighborhood in the region. It is a game where it use two persons to take on it. The end of the game is to get as many ‘stone’ as imaginable and the participant which one might find virtually all of the stone or all the stone at the end could become the winner. There are numerous round that the player must to play, there are no time restrict but the participant might have to wipe out the opposition by acquiring most or all the stone.

The tools
There are two likely tools that is employs to play congkak. In the last days, several people could play congkak by using only some stone as their tools. In this case, the player will need to dig hole on the ‘playing ground’ and they will use the hole as one more tools.

The other way or the one that numbers of people do nowadays is that they shall buy a congkak tools which is a piece of wood which have hole in it as the place to put the stone in. Nowadays player also didn’t use stone anymore and it has been replaced with tiny & beautiful marble.

The photo beneath is the tools which is use to play congkak.

Based on the pic above, the big hole in each end of the tools is call ‘house’. There are two house in the congkak game which is go to each of the player. The house will locate in the left of the player. While the further hole is the ‘ground’ that the player may and will play. There is comprised of two variation of the tools, one have merely five playground hole in each side and one more version have seven playground hole in two side. The marble or the stone that is expect for this game will depend on how many playground hole. In case there are seven hole, we shall require seven marble in each hole. While if the hole is only five hole, we will need five marble in each hole.

How to play congkak
Congkak games takes the player to be alert of what the opposition do. He have to be sharp in calculation & utilise efficient strategy to succeed this game.

The player will choose to take marble from any hole in his side and he will put one marble in each hole beginning the next hole in the left. He require to put the marble in each hole including his ‘house hole’ with just except of opponent ‘house hole’. This is how a player might win, i.e. if he able to ‘play’ congkak without whatsoever distruption or stop the ‘house hole’ will get more marble. Whenever the last marble that he hold fall into any hole, the player may take all the marble in that hole and continue to play. Nonetheless, if the marble fall into empty hole, he ought to stop and permit the opposition continue to play till the opposition too have this position and stop. This is when the opponent take turn to play (after the other player stop). The player can choose to start (or select) marble from any hole ONLY from his side if he get the opportunity to play. But, if the last marble that he hold fall into his ‘house hole’, the player will get another opportunity to start the game & the opponent could only have to wait.

Rule of congkak game
Here is a select few rule of congkak game which the player need to remember.

In the beginning , both player commence together but later just one player at a time when one of the player have to stop (his last marble fall into empty hole)

After the end of one game which is after all marble is finish in every hole, both player may start over using only the marble that he have accumulate during the game. For example if one player (just call player A) get only 30 pieces of marble - he could have opportunity to fill up only few hole - in case 7 marble each hole - only 4 hole is filled up which the other hole is consider cancelled. While another player (player B) can filled up every one that he have. and after that the game shall start again. The game will finally end only if one of the player surrender or one of the player get all the marble.

Some last word.
There are many version of Congkak games and each version may have their own rule which sometime only based on the player agreement (but it is not too differ from the above). This traditional games of congkak help the player how to calculate & make strategies. Actually there are many tips on how to play congkak and some experience player can even forecast which hole he should ‘start’ in different senario. Nevertheless, all the tip on playing congkak is the story of another day… good luck and thanks for interesting in traditional games.