Mara (nine men's morris)
An Azerbaijani folk game played with small stones in pits.
Names among the peoples
- məre köçdü (Azerbaijanis)
About
Mere (mərə köçdü) is an Azerbaijani folk game played with holes and stones; it belongs to the same family as the mangala of Türkiye and the toguz kumalak of Central Asia. It is played by two or four children. Each player has three holes, called mərə, and 21 stones: the stones are dealt out two by two to a counting rhyme, so that seven fall in each hole.
A player takes up the stones of one hole and deals them round the holes one by one. When the last stone falls in an opponent's hole, the stones in that hole may be won; a player who takes seven or more stones from an opponent wins both the stones and one hole. A player all of whose holes are emptied is out of the game.
Peoples
Research: Vasif Namazov, Turan Games Concept