The Dutch shuffleboard game that comes out at Christmas and beats everyone equally
Part of: Dutch Sports
Sjoelen (pronounced roughly "shoo-len") is a Dutch board game played on a long wooden board — the sjoelbak — about two metres long. You slide 30 flat wooden discs along the board, trying to get them through one of four narrow gates at the far end. Each gate has a point value: 2, 3, 4, and 1, left to right.
You get three attempts per turn. After each attempt you retrieve the discs that didn't make it through and try again. At the end of three attempts, you score.
The clever part: a complete set — one disc in each of the four gates — scores 20 points, which is more than 2+3+4+1=10. So the strategy is to aim for complete sets rather than just chasing the highest-value gate. Extra discs beyond the first in each gate score only their face value.
This makes sjoelen more strategic than it first appears. Getting one disc in every gate consistently beats stuffing the 4-point slot.
Sjoelen is a family game — it comes out at Christmas, New Year's Eve, family gatherings, and rainy Sunday afternoons. It has been part of Dutch domestic life since the late 1800s. The board lives under a bed or in a cupboard for most of the year and emerges when the whole family is in one place.
Its particular appeal is that age and physical strength give no advantage. A grandparent and a ten-year-old compete on equal terms. This makes it, in spirit, very Doe Maar Gewoon — no one dominates, everyone participates, the game gently humbles anyone who gets overconfident.
It is also known in Belgium and Germany (where it is called Jakkolo), but it is most deeply embedded in the Netherlands.
If you are invited to a Dutch family home around the holidays, there is a reasonable chance a sjoelbak will appear. The rules take two minutes to learn. You are expected to play. You will probably lose to someone's grandmother and enjoy it.
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