Four Field Kono Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• How to Play
  • Beginning the Game
  • Moving the Pieces
  • Capturing Enemies
  • Ending the Game
• Further Information

How to Play

Four field kono is played on the intersections, or points, of a board of four lines by four, as shown in Illustration 1. It is for two players, each of which starts with eight pieces.

Illustration 1: an empty four field kono board. Play is on the sixteen points, not in the nine squares.

Beginning the Game

1. The game begins with each player having filled his half of the board with his pieces (see Illustration 2).
2. Black takes the first move.

Illustration 2: the board starts full of pieces, so only capturing moves are possible.

Moving the Pieces

3. A piece moves by sliding along a marked line to an empty adjacent point (see Illustration 3).
4. Diagonal moves are not allowed in this game.
5. As the board begins full of pieces, and there are no empty points, the first move of the game must necessarily be a capture.

Illustration 3: possible moves for white. Though pieces can move in all four directions, many of the directions are blocked.

Capturing Enemies

6. A player captures an enemy piece by jumping one of his pieces over an adjacent friendly piece, to land on the enemy piece immediately beyond (see Illustration 3).
7. To make such a capture, all three pieces must be in a straight line of three, with the enemy at the end.
8. As is the case with non-capturing moves, diagonal captures are not allowed.
9. Only one capture can be made at a time; there are no multiple jumps as in some other games.
10. A player cannot jump over an enemy piece to make a capture; the piece jumped over must be his own.

Ending the Game

11. If a player has captured all his opponent's pieces, then he has won the game.
12. In practice, if a player has reduced his opponent to one piece then he has already won the game, as the opponent can make no further captures.
13. If a player has pieces left but no legal moved, he is blocked in and has lost the game.

Editor's note: rule 13 reads "no legal moved" in the source leaflet; "moved" is printed as-is and is presumably a typo for "moves".

Further Information

Information on Four Field Kono in common books is scant. The following books contain information on the game:

• Bell, R. C. Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations, vol. 2, p. 42. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1979.
• Bell, R. C. Discovering Old Board Games, p. 31. Aylesbury: Shire Publications Ltd., 1973.
• Culin, S. Korean Games, p. 101. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1895.
• Loader, J. & Loader, J. Making Board, Peg & Dice Games, pp. 38-41. Lewes: Guild of Master Craftsman Publications Ltd., 1993.
• Murray, H. J. R. A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess, p. 92 (note). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952.