Five Field Kono

Traditional

Players
2
Age
6+
Time
10+
# Korea
# Asia
# Block
# Route
# Plain
# Race
# action selection
# bead relocating
# family game
# point to point movement

How to set-up

1. Five Field Kono is played on a 5-by-5 grid with 25 intersections forming the play spaces. The lines of the grid indicate permitted moves.

2. Each player selects 7 BEADs the colour of their choice.

3. BEADs are placed on the intersections of the row closest to the player, the remaining 2 BEADs are placed on the outside intersections of the second row from the player.

4. Players decide who begins the game by rolling a die.

How to play

1. In turns, each player moves 1 BEAD diagonally along the lines and onto an empty intersection.

2. BEADs can move forwards or backwards.

3. BEADs cannot jump.

4. Players cannot capture an opponent’s BEAD, but they can attempt to block their opponent’s ability to move their BEADs.

How to win

1. To win the game, a player must move all their BEADs across the board and onto their opponents starting position.

2. A draw occurs when no BEADs can move.

History

1. Five field Kono is a game from Korea, of unknown history, but it was first recorded in the west in 1895. Two players each try to get their pieces across the board to the opposite side. The first to occupy the starting positions of his opponent wins the game.

2. At the end of the 19th century, a number of board games then present in Korea were recorded by the American ethnographer Stewart Culin. Ko-no was the name given to small board games of many types, that were played on boards marked with lines. One of them was o-pat-ko-no, known in English as five field kono.

3. It was often played on a board that was drawn on the ground, though sometimes on boards drawn on paper. Some people had wooden boards made to play the game.