Games of the World: togyz kumalak, the nine stones of the steppe

Kazakhstan's national game: 162 stones, the first stone back into its own hole, the captured “tuzdyk” hole and victory at 82. On the UNESCO list since 2020 — and we are already building it for the club.

The fourth article in our "Games of the World" series is about the national game of Kazakhstan. It is played in thousands of school clubs, it has world championships, and in 2020 UNESCO added it to the list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. It is togyz kumalak — "nine stones".

A game of the steppe

Togyz kumalak belongs to the large mancala family — games of sowing stones into pits, known from Africa to South-East Asia. The Kazakh branch is one of the most complex: 162 stones and not a single random move, only calculation.

It was played on boards carved from wood, and out on the steppe right on the ground: two lines of pits were dug, and dried sheep pellets, small bones or river pebbles served as stones. The rules used in tournaments today were written down in 1949 by the writer Mukhtar Auezov and Kalibek Kuanyshbayev.

In Kyrgyzstan the same game is called toguz korgool. Turkey has a related mancala, mangala, with a different board and rules of its own. In 2020 Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey inscribed these games on the UNESCO list in a joint nomination.

The board and a move

• Each player has 9 holes (otau), each holding 9 stones (kumalak) — 162 in all.
• Captured stones go into the kazan, the player's store.
• A move. Take all the stones from any of your holes and sow them one by one anticlockwise. The first stone goes back into the same hole — the main difference from other mancalas. If a hole holds a single stone, it simply moves to the next hole.
• Capture. If your last stone lands in an opponent's hole and makes the number of stones there even, you take them all into your kazan.

Tuzdyk — the captured hole

This is the game's most unusual rule. If your last stone makes exactly three stones in an opponent's hole, that hole becomes your tuzdyk: its stones go to you, and everything that lands in it later, until the end of the game, is yours too.

Each player may have only one tuzdyk per game; it cannot be made in the 9th hole, or in the hole with the same number as the opponent's tuzdyk. Where and when to make it is the main strategic question of togyz.

How the game ends

The first to collect 82 stones in the kazan — more than half — wins. If both have 81, it is a draw. If a player has no move left, the stones on the board go to the opponent's kazan and the game is counted.

Where it is played today

Togyz kumalak is a real sport. According to the federation, more than 200,000 people play regularly in Kazakhstan in about 6,900 clubs; there are masters of sport and international masters, and the game is taught in schools. World championships have been held since 2010 — in Astana, Almaty, Pardubice, Antalya and, in 2024, at the World Nomad Games. There are federations in Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania and Latin America, tournaments in London, Prague, Germany and Switzerland, and in Russia togyz is played in Altai, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Tuva.

You can already play togyz online, but the game has few places to be played — far fewer than it deserves.

And at VOG?

Status at VOG: in development. We are building togyz kumalak: rules from the Kazakhstan federation's document, a server of its own, a rating, tournaments following the federation's regulations, a room with bots of different strength, and puzzles such as "make a tuzdyk". The Kazakh and Kyrgyz versions are one game with different names.

While you wait, play our other games of pure calculation, with no dice or cards: Reversi and Go. And if you play togyz, write to us: we want to make it the way it is played where you are.