MEET
The women
The first time I saw Hana Kotinova was in 2024, at the 5th World Nomad Games in Astana, Kazakhstan. After that we have seen each other many times, ans have became, if she allows me, friends and also rivals in togyzqumalq and oware. Beating Hana in mangala would be another story.
Hana Kotinova, originally from the Czech Republic, has been playing abstract games and mancala games since the 90’s. She has become a world reference in mental sports as one of th strongest women contestant. But she does not only play, she also organizes events such as the Deskohraní since 2001 in Prague and the Mancala section at the Czech Open in Pardubice, in the Czech Republic since 2008.
For our interview, I asked her how many abstract games she plays, but she cannot give a definitive answer, but definitely plays more than 100 abstract games from all over the world. As an athlete, she competes professionally in more than 50 abstract games including, of course, Togyzqymalaq, Oware, Mangala, Bao, Go, Frisian Draughts or Othello.
She can even play all of them simultaneously! One time, she signed up for 4 online MSO tournaments, which were regretably same time, and played them all at once!
After 30 years of playing, her achivements are countless: tropheys, medals, certificates. But she is fond of her very first medal won in oware in the Mind Sport Olympiads in 2004.
I asked her about her favourite game, to what she responded “I do not have favourite game. They are good as family – you cannot say this is my favourite child if you talk about your family. It is same. Bestemshe is good, because it is easy, suitable for everyone. Togyzqumalaq is good because it opened the door for traveling and friendship between many people. Bao is good because it goes to the border of your skills of imagination…”
Hana Kotinova´s passion for these games has taken her to develop mancala games in the Czhech Republic, and she is the leader orf the Czech Federation of Mancala Games. Among her titles, she is also vice-presidente of the World Togyzqymalaq Federation.
We talked about her interest in mancala games, which comes from de discovery of “the Great Book of Board Games» where is the entire section about mankala. From her early memories of playing mancala she recalls that she “played at home with no original mancala board, so she used instead little plastic plates of baby dish sets and lits from Christmas chocolate collections”.
Those times have passed now, and in her home she has hundreds of board games, dozens of mancala boards, as well as rooms full of books of abstract games. I asked about what fascinates her more about mancala games, and the answer is the math behind the games, particularly, she is fascinated by “Kazakh and Kyrgyz formulas to calculate number of moves in hand. And fact, that this works on any size of the board”.
We also spoke of the role of women in mancala games and in particular if she admired great women in these games. In her own words “I do not care about gender. I admire people, who (like me) see the huge educational potential of board games in general and are not afraid to take action”.
When asked about the advice she would give young women and girls that have just strated to play mancala games, she respondend: “At first, get comfy with the rules. Do not care, who wins, just watch the flow of the game. When you are comfy with the rules, try to think one move ahead. If you want to be master, record your games and replay them”.
For Hana as for many of us in the mancala games world, playing is a sport, but it is also friends and family. For Hana, in particular, playing mancala games opened the door of love. But that is another story.
Finally, it is important to note that a lot of women in mancala games admire Hana for her intelligence, perseverance and opening so many doors for women. Even if she does not care about gender, I know for a fact that, without her presence in mancala games, women participation, at least in Europe, would not be same. Thank you Hana and see you in the next tournament.
