Ô ăn quan is a traditional game passed down through many generations of the Vietnamese people, and it has gradually become a cultural hallmark of the nation. So what is the way to play Ô ăn quan? How does the Ô ăn quan game affect children's brains?
How to play Ô ăn quan?
Ô ăn quan is usually played on the ground or on a hand-drawn board, a rectangular drawing on paper. The game is distributed across all three regions of Vietnam and is also known by the names “chơi quan” or “Ô quan”.
Preparation for playing Ô ăn quan
You need to prepare a playing board, which can be drawn on paper, chalked on the ground at home or on school grounds. The board has 10 pits, five on each side and symmetric as two parallel lines, with two larger quan pits placed at the two ends of the board.
Also, you need about 50 small pieces and 2 large quan. Each small pit holds 5 pieces, the two large pits hold 2 pieces, with the large pieces twice the size of the small pieces for easy distinction. So how to play Ô ăn quan?
How to play Ô ăn quan for kids
- To play Ô ăn quan, you need 50 pieces and 2 quan, the quan pieces are twice the size of the others or are in a different color for easy distinction. Distribute 5 pieces into each of the 10 pits, and place the 2 quan at the two ends of the board.
- Pick any one of your five pits under your control, sow the pieces from that pit into each pit around it in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.
- If the last piece lands in a pit such that the adjacent pit contains pieces, continue taking pieces from the next pit and sow until the last piece lands in a pit whose adjacent pit is empty. You will capture all the pieces adjacent to that empty pit, including the quan.
- If the last piece ends in a pit whose neighboring pit is two empty pits, you lose your turn and the move passes to your opponent.
- You will capture consecutively when you land such that after an empty pit comes a pit with pieces; this sequence repeats within one turn. You must stop when the pit next to the one you are capturing is no longer empty but contains pieces or a quan.
- Also, if the last piece in your turn lands beside a quan pit you also lose your turn and the move is given to your opponent.
- If the five pits under your control run out of pieces, you must take the captured pieces out to sow one piece into each pit.
- Even if both of your quan pits have been emptied, but there are still pieces, you continue playing until all pieces on the board are gone
- After the game ends, we start counting points by counting the number of pieces and quan that you have captured. Each piece counts as one point and each quan counts as five points.
The Ô ăn quan game stimulates children's brain development
How to play Ô ăn quan helps children develop reasoning abilities as they use their minds to plan their moves and decide which direction to move to capture the pieces on the board. The game also helps children improve analytical thinking as they must think ahead and predict the opponent's moves and then move so that the opponent cannot capture any pieces, no matter what move they make.
Ô ăn quan is a highly distinctive and simple traditional game of the Vietnamese people. Through this article, Mykingdom has helped you understand more about the way to play Ô ăn quan and the benefits it brings.
