Mu Torere

Starting positions on the Mu Torere board

Mu Torere is a board game played mainly by the Māori people from the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. It is one of two board games that the Māori people are known to have played before their country became part of the British Empire.

The Ngāti Haua chief Tamihana Te Waharoa reputedly offered a game to Governor George Grey with the whole country going to the winner, but Grey declined.^[1]

Rules

Each player has four counters. They are placed on the board at the kewai – the eight end points of the star. The middle, or putahi, is left empty. A player may move one counter to an empty space. Players can only move to an adjacent kewai and only move to the putahi if the counter is next to one of your opponents. The winner is the player who blocks all of their opponents pieces, preventing them from moving.

References

1. ^ A W Reed and Buddy Mikaere (2002). "Draughts". Taonga Tuku Iho: Illustrated Encyclopedia of Maori Life. p. 54. ISBN 1-877246-90-5. 

• Mu Torere by George Jelliss (first published in the Games and Puzzles Journal issue 17)
• Mu Torere The board game of Mu Torere - New Zealand in History
• Mu Torere Big Computer Games: Mu-Torere - Māori game from New Zealand