Ô Ăn Quan

Ô Ăn Quan was drawn in chalk on school yards, with pebbles picked up under the trees. Every game is a small puzzle about thinking ahead.

1. The board has 10 villager squares (5 stones each) and 2 mandarin squares at the ends. The bottom 5 squares are yours.
2. Pick one of your squares and a direction, scoop up all its stones and drop one in each square along the way.
3. If the next square still has stones, scoop them up and keep going. If it's empty and the one after has stones, capture them, and keep capturing while the pattern repeats.
4. Hitting a mandarin square or two empty squares in a row ends your turn. If your squares are empty, put back 5 captured stones; if you can't, you lose.
5. When both mandarins are gone, the game ends and each side keeps the stones on its own squares. A mandarin is worth 10, each stone 1.
6. Play the computer on Easy, Medium or Hard, or two players on one device. The first move alternates between games.

Click one of your squares, then choose ◀ or ▶ (keyboard: Tab to a square, Enter, then an arrow key). “Skip ahead” finishes the sowing at once.

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