Fighting Serpents - Board Game

Kolowis Awithlaknannai (also known as Fighting Serpents) is
a two-player strategy board game from the Zuni Native
American Indians. It was described by Stewart Culin in his
book Games of the North American Indians (1907), and may
have been the first publication of the game. It was later
described in R.C. Bell's book Board and Table Games from
Many Civilizations (1969). R.C. Bell coined the term Fighting
Serpents, but provides no explanation for it. Perhaps the
black and white pieces are laid out in the beginning of the
game in such a way that it looks like two serpents fighting.
1. Each player's 23 pieces are initially placed on all the
intersection points of the row closest to him or her.
They are also placed on the right-half side of the
middle row from the view of each player. Only the
middle point, and the two points on the ends are
empty at the beginning.
2. It is arbitrary which player starts first. The first
player however must move their piece onto the middle
point which will then be captured by the other player
as captures are compulsory. For this reason, it is
thought that the first player has a disadvantage.
3. There are two types of movements: non-capturing
moves, and capturing moves. A piece can be moved one
space (non-capturing move) per turn. The move must
follow the pattern on the board. Or a piece can
capture an enemy piece (capturing move). This move
must also follow the pattern on the board also.
Captures are similar to those in Draughts and
Alquerque. A player's piece jumps over an adjacent
enemy piece, and lands on a vacant spot beyond it.
The jump need not be straight as long as it lands on a
spot immediately beyond the enemy piece and follows
the pattern on the board. Captured pieces are
removed from the board. Captures are compulsory.
4. Multiple captures are allowed, however the player can
decide how many captures to be made.