A man in the outer row can not be moved until he has been played upon by a man from the inner row.
A move can not begin from a pocket holding a single man if the player has a pocket containing more than one man. When a move does begin from a pocket containing a single man, it can not be played into an occupied pocket.
When all the men which a player has become single, those remaining in his outer row which have not been played on are forfeited to the opponent.
The winner is the player who captures all his opponent’s men.
It is an advantage to a player to get his counters singled as soon as possible, unless he sees that his opponent is doing the same thing, when a different policy is wise.
If he wishes to cover two or three vacant spaces in order to effect a capture, it can often be done, provided he begins his move far enough back from those vacant pockets.
The loss of counters during the earlier part of the game is not necessarily as great a disadvantage as in most games, because so much depends on the final move, in which there is the chance for a brilliant display of skill.
The native players of the original Chuba say “chee” at the end of each move, which gives notice to the opponent to proceed; and toward the close of the game, when the moves follow in rapid succession, the effect is very amusing.
The natives call the counters in the inner row “man and wife,” and those in the outer row “spinsters.” But these spinsters are married by passing a counter over them from the inner row, till, in the progress of the game, all the pieces become single, when they are all called “widows.” These widows have a double advantage over the married families, and are sure to make havoc among them. The game is appropriately named, as the word chuba means “to extinguish” or “eat up,” and the object of each player is to annihilate his opponent by putting the latter’s counters in a position from which escape is impossible.