How to play guchha (marbles)
Knock marbles out of a ring with your shooter, then drop the shooter into the khopi to keep them. When the ring is empty, whoever won more than they put in comes out ahead.
- Players
- 2-4
- What you need
- A few glass marbles each, a shooter, a ring scratched in the ground and a small hole
- How long
- A game takes five minutes or so
What guchha is
Guchha is marbles as children all over Nepal played them: in a courtyard, a lane or a school ground, with glass marbles bought two for a rupee, and often for keeps. Everybody puts the same number in a ring scratched on the ground, and then each in turn flicks a bigger marble, the shooter, to knock them out.
No two neighbourhoods played it quite the same way, and nobody wrote the rules down. These are the ones described most often: a ring and a hole, the khopi, that a marble knocked out has to be won in. Without the hole, or with the marbles in a row, are both here as house rules.
Here you can play bots at four levels, friends online, or up to four people passing one phone.
The ground
The ground here is a patch of packed earth 60 by 90 cm inside a step of brick. A marble rolls up to the brick and comes back off it, slowly. The ring is 30 cm across, in the far half.
The khopi is a hole about five centimetres across between the players and the ring. Near the players is the throwing line, and a second line runs across the ground through the middle of the ring.
The start
- Everybody puts the same number of marbles in the ring, three each unless the table agrees otherwise.
- Each player throws their shooter from the throwing line at the line through the ring. Whoever stops nearest it shoots first, and the rest follow in order of how near they came.
- Everybody picks their shooter up again, and the first flick of each player is from anywhere on the throwing line.
- After that you always flick from wherever your shooter came to rest.
Knocking a marble out
Flick your shooter at a marble so that it drives the marble over the ring. A marble whose middle comes to rest outside the ring is out. If anything you flick knocks one out, you flick again.
Your shooter is heavier than a marble, so on a full hit it keeps rolling after the marble it hit. That is often how it ends up out of the ring as well, which does not matter, because you play on from where it stops.
A flick that knocks nothing out ends your turn, and the next player in order flicks.
The khopi
With the khopi, which is how most of the country played it, a marble you knock out is not yours yet. It is set aside, and your next flick has to drop your shooter into the khopi.
Drop it in and the marbles set aside are yours, and you flick again from beside the hole. Miss, and they go back into the middle of the ring and your turn ends.
The hole only takes a shooter that is rolling slowly. A fast one runs straight over it, so the flick at the khopi has to die into it.
The end of a game
The game ends when the ring is empty and nothing is set aside. Each player has won some marbles and put some in, and the difference is their score: someone who put in three and won five is two up, and someone who put in three and won one is two down.
The scores always add up to nothing, because every marble somebody won was put in by somebody. A match of several games adds the games up, and the highest total wins.
Other ways it is played
Kachhi is the line game. The marbles stand in a row across the middle of the ring rather than scattered in it, and the rest is the same. Twenty marbles do not fit across the ring in one row, so they stand in two or three.
Without the khopi, a marble you knock out is yours at once. The games are quicker and the aiming matters more than the touch.
Children also played khal, throwing a handful of marbles at a hole and betting on an odd or an even number going in. That is a bet on a throw, not a game of aim, and it is not here.
Playing here
To aim, drag on the ground and the aim turns round your shooter with your finger. Drag further out and it turns more finely. Tap a marble to aim straight at it, and for the last touch drag the ridged strip next to the power bar sideways.
To flick, pull the power bar back as far as you want and let go. The finger behind the shooter draws back as you pull. Let go near nothing and the flick is called off.
When your shooter is in hand, it pulses on the throwing line. Drag it along the line to where you want it, then aim. On the shot at the khopi, the hole pulses instead.
Each player's shooter is a colour of its own, the same as the dot beside their name. On a computer the mouse works the same way, A and D or the arrow keys turn the aim, W and S set the power, and Space flicks.
A few tactics
- Take the marble nearest the edge first. It needs the softest flick to go out, and a soft flick leaves your shooter close for the next.
- With the khopi on, think about where your shooter will stop. Knocking a marble out from far away and leaving yourself a long roll to the hole is how most marbles go back.
- On the throw for first, a little short is better than a little long. Both are measured the same, but a long throw can roll on into the brick.
- When there is nothing easy, play gently: a soft flick that leaves your shooter near the ring is better than a hard one that sends it to the far end.
Settings
Every setting is on the game's page before you start. These are the defaults, and what changing each one does.
| Setting | Standard | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Who is playing | Against a bot | Play bots, friends online, or up to four people on this phone |
| Difficulty | Medium | How many flicks a bot weighs up and how steady its hand is |
| Marbles each | 3 | Two for a quick game, five for a long one |
| The khopi | On | Off, a marble knocked out is won at once |
| The marbles | Scattered in the ring | In a row across the ring, the kachhi way |
| Games | One | Three or five, added up |
| Aim guide | To the marble the shooter hits first | Shows where both go after the hit, or nothing at all |
| Speed | 1× | Plays the flicks and the pauses faster |
Words
- Guchha (गुच्चा)
- A glass marble, and the game played with them. Also kancha.
- Shooter (घ्वाइँ)
- The bigger marble you flick. Here each player's is a colour of its own.
- Khopi (खोपी)
- The small hole dug in the ground, which a marble knocked out is won in.
- Kachhi (कच्छी)
- The game with the marbles in a row on a line rather than scattered in a ring.
- Throwing for first
- Everybody throwing their shooter at a line, the nearest shooting first.
- Set aside
- A marble knocked out and waiting on the shot at the khopi.
Every rule on this page is the one the app plays by. Change any of them on the game's own page before you start.