In this project, make a cardboard game board for the game of Alquerque. The game board is designed to use marbles as playing pieces. You can also use the project's printable patterns to make a simple "print, cut and play" game board by following the instructions in the English Board Solitaire craft project.
Alquerque is a classic war or battle game with equal sides and complex strategy. Included at the end of the project are rules for playing the game of Alquerque and some history about the game.
Related craft: Use Homemade Modeling Dough to make your own marble-like game pieces.
Choose a game board to make—colored or black & white. Download and print the pattern.
Use the Marble Squares pattern to make a game board
suitable for marble playing pieces.
Choose a design that prints in color, or select a
black & white pattern and use your creativity to add color and
designs.
Easy Game Board: The Alquerque board patterns can be used to make a simple "print, cut and play" game board. Just follow the instructions in the English Board Solitaire craft project.
Patterns are Adobe PDF files. The Adobe Reader is available for free.
All of Aunt Annie's project patterns are designed to be printed on standard letter-size paper (8.5"x11" or A4). When printing from Adobe Reader, you may need to select Auto-Rotate and Center or Choose paper source by PDF page size to ensure the best fit.
Following the instructions in the English Board Solitaire craft project, make the game board base. Follow the directions for making it with cardboard and do not cover it with contact paper.
Tip: You may print the game board directly on cardstock and skip the step that glues the game board to cardboard.
Tip: If you printed a colored version of the board, you can still add a personal touch by decorating the border around it.
Print the Marble Squares pattern on computer paper. The pattern has 30 squares. You will need 25 squares for the game board.
Tip: Print the black & white pattern on colored computer paper that coordinates with the game board. You won't need to color the squares if you do this.
If you printed the black & white Marble Squares pattern on white paper, color the squares with any colors you like, or leave them white.
Tip: You could color the twelve starting squares for each player in different colors and leave the center square white.
Cut a piece of cardboard big enough for all 30 squares. Cardboard from an empty cereal box works well. Glue the squares to the cardboard. Be sure to cover the squares completely, edge-to-edge, with glue.
Cut out 25 marble squares. Be sure to make straight cuts with square corners.
Tip: It's easier to cut the squares with a craft knife and ruler. Careful! Craft knives require adult supervision.
Using the gray circles as a guide, punch a hole in the center of each square.
Arrange the squares on the game board. Be sure to center each one over a circle on the game board.
Carefully glue each square to the game board. Wipe any excess glue from the squares and holes. Let the glue dry, and you are ready to play.
Tip: Glue the center square to the board first, then glue the four squares with eight lines coming out from their centers. Use these as placement guides as you glue the other squares. Align a ruler or long strip of cardboard to the sides of these squares, then glue the other squares in the row along the ruler's edge.
To play Alquerque, you will need a game board and playing marbles of two different colors—twelve marbles of each color. You can also use game pieces from other games, coins, marshmallows, or dry cereal (Trix). You can even make your own pieces with homemade Modeling Dough.
The object of this 2-player game is to capture all of the opponent's pieces.
The game ends when one player captures all of the other player's marbles, or when one player is blocked and cannot move. The game ends in a draw if neither player can capture all of the opponent's marbles.
Now it's time to play a game!
Alquerque-type games are war games of the battle variety. These games are among the oldest games and date back to at least 1400 B.C. An alquerque board was cut into a roofing slab of the temple at Al-Qurna in Egypt. The Arabic name for this game is el-quirkat; it is mentioned in a manuscript, Kitab al-Aghani, from the 10th century. The Moors brought the game to Spain, where its name became alquerque. Several versions of the game are mentioned in the Libro de Juegos (Book of Games) from the reign of Alfonso X.
Awithlaknannai ("Stone Warriors") is played by the Zuni of New Mexico. The board, called stone field by the Zuni, originated in Mexico where it was used in a hunt-type game.
Lau Kata Kati and Dash Guti are two alquerque-type games from India. Alquerque-type battle games are played all over the world on many different board arrangements, but the rules are nearly always the same.