What is Yoté on a 6×6 board?
The standard Yoté board has 5 rows of 6 squares. In this variant you play on a square 6×6 board instead, chosen as the board size in the table setup. Nothing else changes: each player still starts with 12 pieces in hand, White moves first, and on every turn you place a piece on any empty square, step one piece to a neighbouring empty square, or jump an enemy piece. Every capture still removes the jumped piece and a second enemy piece of your choice from the board.
The extra row adds six squares, so 36 squares hold the same 24 pieces. With all pieces placed, twelve squares stay empty instead of six. Pieces have more room to step away from a threat, but there are also more empty squares behind each piece for an enemy to jump into, so a position stays open for longer.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Yoté | Yoté on a 6×6 board |
|---|---|---|
| Board | Standard Yoté5 rows of 6 squares, 30 squares in all. | Yoté on a 6×6 board6 rows of 6 squares, 36 squares in all, chosen in the table setup. |
| Pieces | Standard Yoté12 each, all in hand at the start. With every piece placed, 6 squares stay empty. | Yoté on a 6×6 boardThe same 12 each. With every piece placed, 12 squares stay empty. |
| Placing, moving and capturing | Standard YotéPlace a piece on any empty square, step one square orthogonally, or jump an adjacent enemy piece orthogonally into the empty square beyond, then remove a second enemy piece of your choice from the board. | Yoté on a 6×6 boardThe same, on the larger board. Steps and jumps also reach the sixth row. |
| End of the game | Standard YotéYou win when your opponent is down to one piece or none, counting the board and the hand. A player who has no legal move on their turn loses. | Yoté on a 6×6 boardThe same. |
History
Yoté is a traditional game of West Africa. Charles Béart recorded it in his survey Jeux et jouets de l'ouest africain, published in Dakar in 1955, as one of the most widespread gambling games in Senegal, played with 12 pebbles against 12 small sticks. It is described in English in Frederic V. Grunfeld's Games of the World (1975) and Jennifer Prior's The Games of Africa (1994), and its sudden reversals of fortune are often given as the reason it is played for stakes.
The size of the grid has never been fixed. Béart's record describes a board of twenty-five squares, a 5×5 grid, and the closely related Gambian game Choko is also played on 5×5. Most modern rule sets use 5 rows of 6 squares, which is the standard game here. Traditionally the board was simply a grid traced or dug into the ground, so nothing held it to one size.
We know of no published source for a 6×6 Yoté. It is offered here as a roomier board for players who want longer games, with every rule of the standard game unchanged.