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Hidden History: The Mongol Game of Jarmo [1]
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Date: 2023-11-21
Jarmo is an ancient Mongolian game said to have been played by the grandson of Genghis Khan.
"Hidden History" is a diary series that explores forgotten and little-known areas of history.
Jarmo gameboard
History
This unusual game comes from Mongolia and dates back at least to the 13th century. According to legend, the Khan emperor Batu (grandson of Genghis) always played a game of Jarmo before a battle to help concentrate his mind. The game may or may not have been around in the time of Genghis himself.
Today the game is played in Mongolia and in the Tartar areas of Asia. A variant known as Jasir is played in Poland.
Equipment
The board used in Jarmo is unusual. There is a 5x5 grid of dots which serve as the game spaces. But instead of a grid of squares or straight lines, these dots are interconnected by a seemingly arbitrary web of line segments that run from one dot to another. This web is even more unusual in that it is asymmetric—the layout of the lines on the board from one Player’s side is not the same as that for the other.
Each Player has five game pieces. These must each have two distinguishable sides: one side is known as the “Archer” and the other is the “Marked Archer”. This can be duplicated with checkers pieces or with coins that have either “heads” or “tails” facing up.
To Play
In addition to its odd playing board, Jarmo is peculiar among wargames in that its aim is not necessarily to capture an opponent’s pieces, but to get as many of your own pieces as possible into the opponent’s Home row.
The game is set up with each Player having his five Archers placed in his Home row at the near edge of the board. Players then take turns moving any Archer per turn, from one dot to another in any direction which is marked by a direct line segment between those spaces. The dots are the game spaces, not the lines, and the line intersections are ignored. A piece cannot move from one dot to another if there is no line segment connecting them.
Captures take place as in Chess: if a piece ends a move on a space that is occupied by an opponent, the opponent’s piece is removed from the board and the Player’s piece occupies that spot. Upon making a capture, the Player’s Archer piece is also turned over and becomes a Marked Archer. Marked Archers can then continue to move and capture enemy pieces in the normal manner. (In the Jasir version, however, Archers cannot move backwards but Marked Archers can.)
Captures are not compulsory.
Archers who reach the opponent’s Home row remain there—they cannot move. They can still be captured by the opponent’s pieces, though.
When a Marked Archer reaches the opponent’s Home row, however, he has the right to free one of his prisoners that have been captured by the opponent: the Player takes one of his captured pieces back from the other Player and places it again in play on any empty space in his own Home row. (If there is no empty space immediately available, the Player places it whenever an empty spot opens up.) The Marked Archer who has reached the opponent’s Home row is then flipped over to become an Archer again, and cannot move from that spot.
Game play ends when a Player has maneuvered all of his remaining Archers and Marked Archers into the opponent’s Home row and can no longer move. The one with the most pieces in the opponent’s Home row, wins.
An alternative method of winning, used mostly for gambling, scores by a system of points. (It can also be used in case of a tie where both Players have the same number of pieces in the opponent’s Home row.) For each of his Archers and Marked Archers in the opponent’s Home row, a Player receives two points, and for each remaining Archer and Marked Archer anywhere else on the board, a Player receives one point. (This does not include any freed prisoners that have not yet been placed on the board.) The highest total wins.
Since the two game board sides are different, a typical match consists of two games, with the Players switching sides for each, and the winner is the one with the highest total in both games.
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