How to Play Nau Keti Keta

Nau Keti Keta or Lau Kati Kata

(9 Boys & Girls)

Contents:
Game board - 1
Pawns - 9 +9

This is a war game played by 2 players. One player gets a group of 9 (nau) boys (keta) and another gets a group of 9 girls (keti)

Winner: Player who takes out all enemy pawns out of the board is the winner.

How to play:

1. Pawns have to be placed only on intersections of lines (shown by blue dots in Fig. 1)

2. During a turn only one coin has to be played.

3. At the beginning both armies are placed on the board as depicted by white and black dots in Fig. 2.

4. During a turn only one pawn has to move to an adjacent point which is connected to its current point by a line. It can move in any direction. See Fig. 3

5. If a point is not connected to its present point by a line, the pawn cannot move there. See Fig.4

6. If a pawn encounters a lone opponent such that there is an open point just behind the opponent (in the same line), then the pawn jumps over the latter to the open point and takes the opponent out of the board. In Fig. 5, the white pawn jumps over the black pawn and the black pawn is cut.

7. A pawn can jump over multiple opponents during its turn provided it should always land on an empty junction before jumping over the next opponent (this is similar to multiple-cutting option as in Checkers). In Fig. 6 observe that one white pawn has jumped over three black pawns, thus cutting all three.

8. There is no limit for a pawn to cut its opponent pawns in a single turn. Sometimes it happens so that one single pawn can wreak major havoc in opponent pawns during multiple-cutting.

9. A pawn cannot jump over an opponent if there is no open point behind the opponent as shown below in Fig. 7. A pawn cannot jump over opponent pawn if no line is connecting its point with that of the opponent’s (see Fig. 8 )

10. A pawn cannot jump over an empty point at anytime, not even to cut a pawn as shown in Fig.9. A pawn cannot change direction while cutting a pawn as shown in Fig 10.

11. A cut pawn is permanently out of the game and cannot be reintroduced on the board during that game.

12. The player who has cut all of opponent pawns is the winner.

Benefits: This is an exciting game which helps develop strategy. Both players should be very careful and attentive since danger can be lurking anywhere. A weak moment of judgement can cause major crisis in the form of multiple-cutting.