The Ethiopian Game of Gobeta:
Sulus Nishtaw

Harold Courlander

Negro History Bulletin, Washington, D.C., No. 7, Oct. 1943, pages 21-23.

[Page 22] Sulus Nishlaw: Both participants do not start at once here, but one or the other of them makes the initial move. If B is the first player (see Diagram 1) he starts by collecting one bean from hole 1, one from hole 2, one from hole 3, etc., until he has taken one bean from each of the first eight pockets. Then he drops one 1 in hole 9, one in 10, one in 11, etc., until his last piece falls in hole 16. He takes up all the pieces from hole 16, and redistributes them as in the conventional play. If player A starts, his play begins at hole 10. Pockets are claimed exactly as in Sulus Aidi.

However, it is possible in this game to take pieces from the claimed pockets before the game ends. If a player can move so that a last bean falls in a pocket claimed by his opponent, he takes two beans from this pocket and puts them aside as winnings. He then has another turn, starting once more from any position on his own side of the [Page 23] boards. If he is able to win again in this manner, he has still another turn. His play ends when his last bean falls into an empty pocket.

Once a pocket is claimed, the claim exists even if an opponent succeeds in removing all the beans from it, two at a time as described above. For example: Player A claims hole 3 on B's side, and player B is able to remove all the pieces from it, two by two. If player B finds that he has one bean in hole 2 he may move it in to hole 3, and then remove it as an outright winning. A claimed hole may fill up after being empty, in which case two beans at a time may be removed in such a play.

When one of the players finds that he has no more beans to play on his own side, the game is over. The opponents then have final ownership to the pieces 'in their respective claims.

If a series of games is played, the division of the boards may not be identical at the start of all games. The person who has won the most beans in previous games will have more than half the boards designated as his side. Whereas in Sulus Aidi and Abalalà the boards are divided half and half at the start of each game subsequent to the first. In Sulus Nishtaw the division of the boards depends on how many pieces the winner of the previous game possesses. If player B has 33 pieces at the end of any game (and player A has, therefore, 21) he lays them out on the board as in Diagram 4. For the duration of this game all these pockets constitute player B's side, and he is therefore vulnerable to player A's claims over a wider area. The remaining holes constitute player A's side. If player B ends a game with 35 pieces he starts the next game with two entire rows designated as his side. (The two pieces in hole 16 are enough to claim it.) If he should win a total of 38 pieces, his side of the boards would be as indicated in Diagram 5. The sequence of play, as shown in Diagram 1, remains unchanged, however.

There is one variation to this game. Some players hold that once a game is in progress a contestant may not initiate a move from a hole containing three pieces.