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| Česká federace mankalových her | ||||||||
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Czech version - Pусская версия
You could probably find other important moments in human history, but I will start with the year 1997. In London, i.e. in England, this year the first ever Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) starts. Among the participants are David Kotin and Jakub Těšínský. 2001 – Jakub, with the help of many other people, organizes a similar event in the Czech Republic (Deskohraní Festival). I am one of those who help on it. David Kotin is also coming here. Both events, MSO and festival Deskohraní, are repeated every year. 2006 David Kotin and Maxat Shotayev meet at the London MSO. Just a moment before, I change my last name to Kotinová and we try another festival for the first time, the Czech Open international festival of chess and games in Pardubice.
2007 - we invite Maxat to Prague for Deskohraní. The Czech Open is also nice and they are happy to see more games there. So in 2008 we invite Maxat to the Czech Open festival as well. The desire of the organizers to bring more entertainment of a similar type to chess players plays into our hands. 2008 there is GameCon, another festival where people can play games and which is during summer organized in Pardubice, but previous years different time and different place. This year it is part of Czech Open, which brings us many interested players. At the Deskohraní that year, we try Toguz for one day as part of the school program. The next two years too. The school program is an event where, within 90 minutes, children have to try as many games as possible out of about 8 that are available, then choose one and play a tournament in the chosen one for the next 90 minutes. But Toguz is not quite the ideal game for that, the explanation and the game itself take quite a long time.
Kazakhstan presents its Togyzqumalaq in many countries, and finally hosts the 1st World Championship at the end of 2010, where we are also invited. The most interesting moments from the this event? At the entrance to the hotel, we are greeted by a photo taken in Pardubice, in front of the game hall there is a huge board with balls of the size of a ping-pong balls, one day we can look at books, next to which there are also boards modified for a smaller version of the game. Of course I'm looking for the rules. At the end of the championship there is a meeting and at it a request is made to us, to be the organizers of the next WC. And also the first EC. It is the end of November 2010 and I am supposed to organize the 2011 European Championship in Pardubice in July and the 2nd World Championship in July 2012. A great task for the time when I am in my last year of university studies and at the same time I work full time and my employer is going through a crisis and I have to look for a new job. But let's go slower.
2010, November, after returning from Kazakhstan - it is clear to me that I have to start some kind of organization. We have been working on Oware for far longer than Toguz, but we also know several other very similar games. It is obvious that this should be the organization for all similar games. I'm researching options and getting a third person to start an organization. I'm drafting the statutes based on how other gaming federations have it here, I'm setting up a website and we're coming up with a logo. I have several requests for a logo. It should mainly resemble some mancala game. It should fit on a stamp with the name of the organization and it still needs to be easy to recognize what it is, even if it will be very small. And ideally, if it includes a link to the website. The first version is a bit like a Toguz board, it has two long holes in the middle, but I only used three holes for each player. After all, nine holes is just too much. In the end, the five-hole logo is created, and the fact that we saw such a board in Kazakhstan probably contributed to this.
The Federation is officially established on 2 February 2011. So what I consider the hardest, is done. Now we need to get some players. As an IT professional, I intend to make it absolutely simple. We will do an online contest and invite those who participate. I will send informational spam about it to all schools in the country. I use the discovery of smaller boards and create a competition with three categories. For the youngest I use a board with 5 holes, for the older ones with seven and for the oldest with a standard 9 holes.
The big board we saw in Astana was nice. I've seen a few such big gaming sets in my life. And I know how it attracts attention. I have to do something like that too. But how? But luck favors me, because I meet nice, light, collapsible, and not so expensive boxes and balloons for the pool. As much as I liked the big board, I also like the smaller version of the game, i.e. playing only five holes, officially Bestemshe. In the big version, with my boxes and balloons, it fits on one table. In the small version, it fits on a quarter of A3 format. I can fit the rules on 4 lines, that is, they are short, the amount of text is not discouraging. And even children under 10 years old can handle it just fine. Directly at the Czech Open festival, the set works as expected. It attracts attention, it is tried by almost everyone who notices it, has a moment and is not alone. Bestemshe is played every weekday as part of the Deskohrani school program, but I keep the name Toguz kumalak so that children who want to come to the Czech Championship on Saturday hit the right room. After all, just one new, unknown game is quite enough.
The experience with the kids from Deskohraní makes me think about a few things. I'm optimizing the way the rules are explained, I'm thinking about what else could be used so that people can make it home, because nothing like this is available here, and I'm also thinking about what's more natural - sowing left, right or maybe both ways? And how to eliminate the situation when children reach a draw in Bestemshe? In the end, this is another experiment. For two years of Deskohraní, I have tried a variant in which distribution is possible in both directions and only one is collected. It works fine. However, after getting the great boards from Turkey, I'm going back to Bestemshe. Mainly because of the space. The Turkish ones simply fit more pairs of children. To add to the experiments, I also experiment with the color of the balls. We don't like the original Kazakh black, especially David's eyes are in such a state that it is very difficult for him to perceive how many balls are in which hole. He sees colors better. And so our Bestemshe is full of colors. David likes it best when at least five colors are mixed on the board, Kazakh players do not protest against color, but prefer marbles of one color, no matter which one.
But let's go back for a moment. The Czech Open is great because we basically have unlimited space and time. So it's not a problem if more than a dozen participants come, it always fits, because it's played in a hockey stadium, where 1000 people can play at the same time, and at the same time, it's not a problem if the program stretches out. The Czech Open has a standard structure. It starts on Thursday, from Thursday to Sunday they play team chess, and there are other games besides. Then most people leave and chess players slowly arrive for the second half of the festival, a nine-round chess tournament lasting 8-9 days. So, we are gradually extending the program. After all, Kazakh players are used to having a classic, rapid and blitz tournament for adults, and special tournament for juniors, and we want to have Oware and other games there too. And so one weekend slowly turns into a whole mancala week. This gives me the opportunity to add previously untested variants to the program. Since Bestemshe has proven itself both at Deskohrani and as an attraction in Pardubice, it is the first of the candidates we want to try. The first opportunity when I can put it in the program of the Czech Open festival comes in 2015. In April 2015, there is the 3rd World Championship in Kazakhstan, we are leaving for it with a printed program for Pardubice including the tournament in Bestemshe.
It is July 2015, and a Turkish group is coming to the Czech Open for the first time. Another tournament needs to be included in the program, in Turkish Mangala. We had planned to try out new games on the first day anyway and then make a tournament in one of them on the last day, so we are actually fulfilling the plan by including Mangala, even though our idea was originally a little different. The Turks brought their game boards, beautiful white, with colored flat stones. There is always something new on our tables. We started with blue plastic boards on Toguz and wooden boards on Oware. Then appears the four-row board on Bao and the maxi set of boxes and balloons. And Mangala this year. But that's not all. We have a tournament in Bestemshe. The assumption is that we will play on blue boards and, just like I do it with the children at Deskohrani, we will simply cover the extra holes with a ball of a different color or lemonade cap. The interest of the players , is quite large, unlike most of the other, unknown mankala games that we have in the program over the years. 18 players participate in the first tournament. When we repeat it a year later, there are 26 participants.
In 2017, Kazakh players will bring us a big surprise. Special boards for Bestemshe. Wow, well done, bravo! There are fewer players overall in Pardubice, so only about 14 players participate in the tournament in Bestemshe. But we have established a tradition and the tournament is on the program every year.
2020 is coming, a lot of activities are stopped, but at least it's finally time for other things. I'm starting to work on the mankala game server and edit the tournament reports so they can be part of the book. In the summer of 2020, I am making an appointment at the kindergarten located in our street for my next experiment. Between 2016 and 2018, I learned a few tricks to quickly count some things on the board while playing Toguz. This math fascinates me. Additionally, I find that it works for other sized boards as well. I want to show to teachers of mathematics the possibility of practicing mathematics while playing mancala games. If preschoolers are playing a board game, it's usually Ludo. To learn to count to five, which is a requirement for school enrollment, that's great. But if they learned it using game with holes and balls, then they can continue at school. So I'm off to the kindergarten to find out if Mankala has a chance in math lessons. The kindergarten is probably one of the more progressive ones, because even the youngest children there are already able count to five. They handle everything I have prepared perfectly. Unfortunately, after 6 weeks, I do not have time for other activities any more. Half a year later, there are reports from Kazakhstan about teaching Bestemshe in kindergartens. That's great. Keep it up. At the same time, I am discovering great progress with Abaku and I am starting a discussion with the author on the topic of connecting mankala games with Abaku into a universal teaching method, so that no child is afraid of mathematics, but finds its beauty. This project is now ongoing.
Our big Bestemshe board for download, svg format, you can print on any size banner (we have 160cm x 226 cm)
