Toguz Korgool is a traditional Kyrgyz board game played with nine small pellets. It is an intellectual game which belongs to the family of mangala games. Back in the day, Kyrgyz people played it without a board. Players would make dents on the ground and use dry sheep droppings as pellets, hence the name. Currently, players use small pellets made out of stone, wood or other material. The game enhances logical and analytical thinking as well as counting skills. That is why this game is often referred to as “herders’ algebra”. One game can last up to 4-5 hours. A player use basic four mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. The success in the game depends not only on math skills but also on tactics. Back in the day each pellet symbolized a warrior. The board consist of 9 niches for each player as well as two big niches to collect appropriated pellets. There are 162 pellets. To flag the trump niche players use special signs. Two stones of different shape or color can be used as those signs. The board is divided into two parts, namely, the black (dark) and white (light) sides. Modern boards assign numbers to the niches from 1 to 9 from left to right. In a traditional version, each niche has a name (different regions have their own names for those niches): 1 — tail (kuiruk) 2 — horse wouldn't pass over it (at ötpös) 3 — bad house (jaman ui) 4 — shoulder (daly) 5 — lower back (bel) 6 — white armpit (ak koltuk) 7 — double-toothed (eki tishti) 8 — blue neck (kök moyun) 9 — mouth (ooz)