Known in Bengali as "sixteen pieces", this is a regional member of the alquerque family that spread from the Middle East across South Asia and Europe. The board is a 5×5 grid of points with diagonals marked in alternating cells; pieces capture by jumping.
Variant implemented
Sixteen-soldiers Sholo Guti on the 5×5 alquerque lattice, orthogonal and marked-diagonal movement, mandatory short jump capture with chained jumps.
Board and pieces
The alquerque lattice — a 5×5 grid of points with orthogonal lines and diagonals in alternating cells — extended by a triangular point at the top and bottom, giving 33 points in total.
Setup
Sixteen soldiers each. One player fills the sixteen points on their half, the other the sixteen opposite. The centre point is left empty.
Turn
Move one piece one step along any drawn line to an adjacent empty point.
Capture and scoring
Capture by jumping: leap over an adjacent enemy piece to the empty point directly beyond, along a drawn line. Captures are compulsory, and if several capture lines exist you must take one that captures the most. Chained jumps continue in the same move.
Win condition
Capture every enemy piece, or leave your opponent with no legal move.
Draw condition
A long stretch with no capture ends the game and it is scored on material.
Special rules
There are no kings and no promotion. Pieces move and capture in every direction from the start.
Computer opponent
Alpha-beta with capture-first move ordering. The evaluation counts material and mobility.