Hobak Gonu

Rules (as written in the source)

• Each side puts three pieces in its own camp and moves them one point at a time.
• Inside the circle pieces move freely along the lines, but a piece that has left its camp may not enter its own camp or the opponent's camp again.
• Players take turns moving one piece at a time, and you win by leaving the opponent's pieces unable to move inside the circle.

The rule sentences follow the traditional games guide on the Traditional Culture Portal (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), and the board shape is copied from the fifteen gonu diagrams on the same ministry's children's site. Two things the source does not say are our reading: there is no first-move restriction because the source has none, and "unable to move" means having no legal move on your own turn.

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism children's site, gonu guide (Korean)

Notes from playing (our reading, not the source)

The notes below follow from the rules and are our own summary. They are not in the source text.

• Once out, a piece never returns. A piece that leaves its camp cannot enter any camp again, so when to send each piece out is almost the whole game.
• Do not send all three out. With all three inside the circle they block each other's paths and you run out of places to move. Remember that the losing condition is being unable to move.
• Narrow the opponent's paths first. With no capture rule, trapping is the only way to win. Erasing the points the opponent's pieces can reach, one by one, is the attack.
• Pieces move one point at a time. There are no long moves, so a position chosen two moves ahead usually works out as planned.

How it differs from the other gonu games

Hobak Gonu is the only one without a capture rule. In the other games you win by removing the opponent's pieces; here you win by erasing every point they could move to. Attack and defense are the same move.

Cham Gonu and Neojul Gonu remove pieces, and Jadongcha Gonu captures by going around a wheel. Umul Gonu is also close to a trapping game, but on a much smaller board.

Because a piece that leaves its camp cannot return, choosing when to send each one out is the whole of this game. With only three pieces, every move carries weight.