Seega (game)

Seega is an abstract strategy board game that originated in Egypt and has been documented in written sources since at least 1836. It is played on a square board of empty cells, most commonly in five-by-five, seven-by-seven or nine-by-nine layouts, by two players. Play begins with an empty board: the two players alternately place their pieces onto it in a setup phase, after which they take turns moving pieces along the grid lines, capturing an opponent's piece by trapping it between two of their own along a row or column. The game has been recorded under a number of regional name variants, including Seejeh, Seeza, Seezeh, Seja, Cheza, Chesa, Siga and Sidjah, reflecting its spread and long history of informal, oral transmission across Egypt and neighbouring regions. Seega belongs to a broader family of African and Middle Eastern capture-based board games and is related to games such as Yote and Senet, the latter one of the oldest known board games in the world.