Fourteen (Köčürmä Oyun)

Mahmud al-Kashgari’s dictionary of the 1070s records a game called köčürmä oyun. The dictionary glosses the name as “Fourteen”.^[1] The players draw four lines on the ground to make the fortress. They draw ten more lines for the gates. Then they play with hazelnuts or the like.^[1] Four lines and ten lines make fourteen.

The entry follows another that begins with the same word.^[1] Köčürmä očaq is a stove or fireplace that is portable, one that can be carried from place to place.^[1] The dictionary does not say what köčürmä means in the name of the game.^[1]

The entry does not say who played, how many players there were, how the pieces moved or how the game was won.^[1] No other source in the collection names the game.

The game is therefore known only as a fortress and its gates drawn in lines on the ground, with hazelnuts as pieces.