How to Play Yote African Checkers
Checkers is a simple, iconic game that is played the world over, by children and adults alike. There are many variations of this classic game, however, that are less well known. Hailing from Africa and initially played with whatever was available (smooth river stones and sticks) the checkers variation known as "yote" can provide a challenging change of pace to even the most experienced player.
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Instructions
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1
Assemble the board and pieces, if you don't already have them. The playing field of a typical yote board is a square piece of fabric, and marked with identical circles that are spread evenly, 6 by 6, over the board. Each player should be given 12 pieces each. The pieces themselves can be little more than rocks or marbles, although the players should at least have different color pieces than each other.
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2
Have one player place one of his pieces on the board. Have each player take turns placing pieces anywhere on the board, one at a time, until all pieces have been placed. Some variations allow players to place their pieces two at a time, depending on the preference of the players. This feature, yote's thousands of potential starting positions, provides players with much of its unique challenge.
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3
Have the other player, the player who was second to place their pieces in Step 2, make the first move. Players then move their pieces across the board, and into position to jump their opponent's pieces. In yote, pieces may only be moved backwards, forwards, left or right, but not diagonally.
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4
Jump your opponent's pieces. Players may jump more than one piece at a time, although only in the four directions listed above. Pieces that have been jumped are removed from the board. In addition, each jumped piece allows the jumping player to remove one bonus piece of his choice from the board.
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5
Continue play. A player wins when all but one of his opponent's pieces are removed from play.
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Tips & Warnings
Part of yote's popularity was that a board could be created anywhere, with little to no materials. The lines of the board could be drawn in the dirt, or demarcated by twigs or grass. To that end, it is still considered a game for peasants in its native land, because it is so often played on the ground.
Because there is no sides of the board, as in checkers, you cannot "king" or "crown" pieces in yote.
