My day was quite a boring one today, I was alone in the house, But left with no other choice than to be creative by looking for things to do. I did my laundry, wrote on my journal, and did some personal care routine. It was a long day and then I thought about playing this game which I had all alone. Although, it a two players game so you can imagine how bored I actually was. It’s called Ayo game. Pronounced Aaah-Yooh.
The game of Ayo is commonly played and enjoyed by the Yoruba ethnic group in Nigeria for fun and intelligence. It is also known as 'Awele' and every other tribe play it and has a name for it. It is a wooden carved board and It consists of 12 carved holes, six holes on each sides which contains four seeds each making it in total 48 seeds. The seeds are stone like objects.
How to play the game
It’s a two player game. Players can only pick up seeds from their side of the board, unless they have won and “capturing” seeds from the opponent’s side of the board. The objective is to “capture” all your opponent’s seeds and there by declared the winner.
(Pictures used are mine)
Step 1
The first player begins by moving seeds from his right hand side to the opponent’s side running them counter-clockwise. If the seed movement ends in a hole with three or less of the Ayo seeds, the player picks up the seeds, and seeds from preceding holes, if any.
Step 2
The other player does the same, by starting from their side.
Step 3
If the seed movement ends in a hole by four seeds on the opponent’s side, the player “captures” those seeds.
Step 4
When this happens, they win one “house” (one hole) and remove the seeds from the game.
Step 5
The opponent must always strategize and choose their move to bring one or more seeds into the other’s row.
Step 6
Players take turns until they are left with no seeds.
Step 7
If a player records three straight wins, they become a champion and the loser quits the game and a new player then takes turn.
That’s how the game is played. Not too hard, but It takes a lot of calculations and intelligence to play the game.
Thank you for visiting
See you on my next post🤗
