{{Short description, Taiwanese abstract strategy game Watermelon chess board

Sz'Kwa is a two-player

abstract strategy game Abstract strategy games admit a number of definitions which distinguish these from strategy games in general, mostly involving no or minimal narrative theme, outcomes determined only by player choice (with no randomness), and perfect information. ...

from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. It is a go, weiqi, or baduk variant. The Sz'Kwa board is not an n x n square board like go or weiqi. Instead, the board is circular in design. The same board is used by

Watermelon Chess Watermelon Chess is a two-player abstract strategy game from China where it is known as ''Xi Gua Qi''. It is also known as The Surround Game and Globe. Played on a network of curved lines, players take turns to move a piece, capturing the opponen ...

and one of the ancient

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

Bear games Bear games is a category of board games of which many have historical roots in the Roman Empire. They were played in parts of the Empire as far away as Turkey and France and are still played today, especially in Italy. All of the games are two-pl ...

Goal

To capture the most enemy pieces.

Equipment

The board is composed of a large circle with an inner middle circle. Four semicircles form a North, South, East, and West arrangement in the interior of the larger circle. The large circle and the smaller middle circle are divided equally into four pie slices. This creates for twenty-one intersection points where the pieces are played upon. Each player has 20 pieces. One plays the black pieces, and the other plays the white pieces, however, any two colors or distinguishable objects will do.

Game play

The board is empty in the beginning. Players decide what colors to play, and who starts first. Players drop one of their pieces on any vacant intersection point on the board. Only one piece can be dropped per turn. Players alternate their turns. Enemy pieces can be captured as long as they are surrounded completely by the player's pieces. The game ends when there are no more vacant intersection points to drop a piece onto, or when one player has exhausted all their pieces.

Related Games

* Go/

weiqi Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent. The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to ...

/ baduk *

External links

* http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=1196 Abstract strategy games Taiwanese culture