Surakarta! Abstract Game from the exotic land of Indonesia! Hand Made, Wood & Hand Made Glass Marbles.

This beautifully exotic game is known as Surakarta and it originates from the beautiful land of Indonesia. The history of the game is unknown but variants of the game have been found to go as far back as the early 19th C. but it likely dates to far earlier than that. The game is simple but full of cunning strategy for the savvy player. The object of the game is to capture all 12 of the opponent's pieces; or, if no further captures are possible, to have more pieces remaining in play than the opponent. Pieces always rest on the points of intersection of the board's grid lines. On a turn, a player either moves one of their pieces a single step in any direction (forwards, backwards, sideways, or diagonally) to an unoccupied point, or makes a capturing move special to Surakarta. A capturing move consists of traversing along an inner or outer circuit, around at least one of the eight corner loops of the board, followed by landing on an enemy piece, capturing it. Captured pieces are removed from the game. Corner loops are used only when making a capture. The capturing piece enters and leaves the circular loop via a grid line tangent to the circle. Any number of unoccupied points may be travelled over, before or after traversing a loop. An unoccupied point may be travelled over more than once during the capturing piece's journey. Only unoccupied points may be travelled over; jumping over pieces is not permitted. Capturing is always optional, never mandatory. A game is won when a player captures all 12 of the opponent's pieces. If neither side can make headway, the game is ended by agreement and the winner is the player with the greater number of pieces in play. This game is hand made by me alone and each one is carefully assembled and finished one at a time. The game board measures just shy of 12" square and comes as shown, with 24 beautiful hand made glass marbles in red and white. (the colors of the Indonesian flag!) Marble come in a small cloth bag for storage (not shown). If you have any questions please feel free to ask and make sure and check out the rest of my shop for other incredible ancient games!!