About the game

The octopus board

Mū tōrere is a Māori board game for two players, played mainly by Ngāti Porou on the East Coast of the North Island. It is one of many taonga tākaro, treasured games, that people in Aotearoa are teaching and playing again.

The board

The board is an eight-pointed star, often likened to an octopus. It was drawn on the ground, carved into wood or marked on bark. Each player has four counters.

pūtahi: the centre point
kāwai: the eight arms or tentacles, each with a point at its end
perepere: the counters

How it's played

Each player's four counters start on four neighbouring arms, and the centre is empty.
On your turn, move one counter into the single empty point. You can move from an arm to the arm next to it, or out of the centre to any arm.
You can move into the centre only with a counter that sits next to one of your opponent's counters.
If your opponent has no move, you win.

History

The ethnographer Elsdon Best first described the game in print in 1917, and again in Games and Pastimes of the Maori (1925). One story says the chief Wiremu Tamihana offered to play Governor George Grey, who declined. Visitors new to the game are said to have lost money betting against skilled Māori players.

People disagree about the game's age. Some think Māori adapted it from European draughts after contact. Others think it is older than European arrival. This page doesn't take a side.

The game is small enough to solve completely. It has 1,180 reachable positions, and with perfect play on both sides it is a draw. That's why skilled players can go on for a long time without either side getting trapped.

Taonga tākaro are part of a wider revival of Māori games, led in schools, on marae and at festivals by groups such as Tū Mātau Ora, Tātuu Roa and Oi Sisters.

Choices this version makes

Green moves first. Our sources don't say who should.
If the same position comes up a third time with the same player to move, the game is a draw, so it can't go on forever.
The perfect computer comes from a complete solve of every position. This app's solve matches Wikipedia's figures exactly: 208 winning, 128 losing and 844 drawn positions.

Sources