Old Hope and Crosby "Road" movies made Southeast Asia feel like a place for quick jokes, jungle chases, and a Dorothy Lamour song. Pasang offers a far more grounded connection to the region: a traditional strategy board game with rules unlike almost anything in the modern hobby.
If you enjoy abstract games that make every move count, Pasang is worth a closer look. Its unusual captures, colorless moving pieces, and long cultural history give it a character all its own.
Brunei's National Game Has Deep Roots
Brunei Darussalam is a small country on the northern coast of Borneo, beside the South China Sea and between larger neighboring nations. The country had a population just under 500,000 in 2025. Malay is its official language, and Islam is the official religion. The Brunei government country profile provides a useful introduction to the country's people and culture.
Brunei is an absolute monarchy ruled by a sultan, and its centuries-old heritage includes traditional games. Pasang is closely tied to that national identity. It has appeared at royal weddings and annual celebrations for the Sultan's birthday, while also remaining a game played outside royal circles.
The inventor is unknown, which befits a game passed down through generations rather than launched as a published product. For a quick record of the game in modern board-game catalogs, visit the Pasang entry on BoardGameGeek.
Written Clues Point to Related Malaysian Games
Pasang has a long recorded history, although its precise age is hard to pin down. Stewart Culin mentioned a similar Malaysian game, Chuki or Juki, in his 1898 book Chess and Playing Cards, a catalog of games, game equipment, and divination tools.
Culin appears to have drawn on earlier material. The trail reaches back through Crawford's work in the 1850s and possibly to an account by Ruurda van Eysinga from 1835. Pasang boards resemble Chuki boards; the game belongs to a family of regional abstract games, but its movement and scoring rules give it a distinct identity.
The Board and Its Many Opening Positions
The center of a typical Pasang board is blank. It has no intersection, dot, or circle, and captures cannot cross that vacant space. Some boards include a large central circle because players are using a Chuki board for Pasang. Others omit a central block of nine intersections rather than just one.
Pasang also has no single required opening arrangement. Grokopedia lists more than 30 starting positions, and digital versions of the game can present several of them. The common arrangement uses 60 black pieces and 60 white pieces in a pinwheel-like pattern. Players take turns, the first player is chosen at random, and every turn must make a capture.
Phase One: Each Player Creates a Passage
The first phase establishes each player's “passage.” On a player's first turn, they choose a five-piece column on their own half of the board, capture those pieces, and remove them for endgame scoring.
The second player's choice has limits based on the first passage:
- If the first player takes a passage in the lower-right or lower-left quadrant, the second player must choose in the opposite quadrant.
- If the first player takes the center column, the second player may choose any column except the center.
- Each player keeps the pieces captured from their passage.
This opening already shows why Pasang feels different from most strategy board games. The board changes before either player has selected the piece they will move for the rest of the game.
Phase Two: Selecting the Colorless Ka
Each player next chooses a ka, the only piece that player will move afterward. Although the ka began as either a black or white piece, it becomes colorless. Players often replace it with a distinctive piece so nobody loses track of it.
The first player chooses one of two methods, and the second player must use that same method.
With the jumping method, a player selects a piece one column away from their passage. That piece jumps over its neighbor and lands in the passage. With the sliding method, a player chooses any black or white piece beside their passage and slides it into the opening.
Either move is also that player's first capture. The ka is colorless, even though it began as a black or white piece.
How Pasang Captures Work
When a ka moves onto a point, it captures an odd number of pieces of one color in a row or column. The ka itself does not count toward that odd number.
A possible capture might take one, three, five, or more pieces, as long as every captured piece has the same color and sits in a straight row or column. However, the capture works in only one chosen direction. If several directions are available, the player picks one rather than collecting them all.
Remember the core capture rules: an odd number, a single color, and one row or column.
Color affects the final score, too: Black pieces gain 1 point, while White pieces are worth 2 points.
Phase Three: Move the Ka and Keep Capturing
After both players have chosen a ka, the regular play phase begins. A ka can move orthogonally across any number of open spaces, but every move must produce a capture. There are no ordinary repositioning moves.
Pasang adds one more directional restriction. When the ka moves along a row, it captures pieces in a column. When it moves along a column, it captures pieces in a row. Movement and capture therefore form a cross, rather than following the same line.
The game ends in one of two ways. If players capture every remaining piece, the higher score wins. If one player cannot make a capturing move, that player loses. This ending is called a suntok, and the winner receives 120 points.
Pasang's Place in Modern Brunei
Pasang gained formal recognition in the early 2000s with the Brunei Darussalam Pasang Association, which promotes play and preservation. In the 2010s, open-source software called Pasang Emas brought the game to a digital audience.
Brunei has also supported traditional games such as Pasang and Congkak as part of cultural education and national identity.
NewVenture Games are planning to publish a version of Pasang in the near future, so be sure to keep in the loop through our Facebook page and YouTube channel! The NewVenture Games how-to-play videos and game history videos offer more ways to explore historic tabletop games.