ABALONE 

Copyright (c) 1989 Abalone S.A. - France

Abalone is played on a 5x5 hexagonal board with 14 stones for each player.

 
  • LINE SHIFT - A player can shift 1, 2 or 3 connected marbles on a line, one cell on one of the 2 directions, provided it is empty.
  • SIDE SHIFT - A player can also shift 2 or 3 connected stones on one of the 6 directions, provided that all adjacent cells on the chosen direction, are empty.
  • PUSH - A line of 2 or 3 stones can push stone opponent stones, using a line shift:
    • The pushed line must be smaller that the pushing line
    • If exists, the cell after the pushed line must be empty.
    • If there is no cell after the pushed line, the last stone is removed from the board
  • GOAL - Wins the player that removes 6 opponent stones from the board
 
An example

Stones e2-f2 can line shift to cell [1]. Stones e3-f4-g5 can side shift to cells [2].

Stones b3-c3 can push (2 vs. 1) and remove stone a3.

Stones c5-c6-c7 can push (3 vs. 2) stones c3-c4.

At Abalone Games, there are a lot of information about news, tactics and variations. One of these variants is Abafoot. Wins the player that pushes the neutral stone off-board.

It is possible to play Abalone with reduced rules (no side-shifts) online. Since the game turned out to be too drawish, the top Abalone players proposed a new rule change which is based on a new setup. A related optional setup is called Daisy:

A variant called DROP ABALONE starts in an empty board, and players may drop (instead of move) a friendly stone on an empty cell (all stones start off-board in each player's reserve). Here's a sample game:

[14 stones each, 7 stones to win]

 1. e5         c4
 2. d5         b3
 3. e6         c2
 4. d4         f5
 5. c3         f6
 6. e4         g6
 7. d6         g7
 8. f7         f5f6-f7
 9. c6         h6
10. d3         h8
11. c3         f6f7-f8
12. f6         f7f8:f9
13. c6f6-g6    f7
14. d5e6-g8    h7
15. c3f6-g7    h8-i8
16. c6f6-g6    i8h7-g6
17. d3f5-g6    f8f9-e7e8
18. e4g6-h7:i8 hi6-gh5
19. f5g7-i8:i8 g8-f8
20. f7h7-e7    resigns

1-0

Final Position:
       . . . . .      1
      . . X . . .     2
     . X . . . . .    3
    . . X O . . . .   4
   . . O . O . X X .  5
  / . . O O O O . .   6
 a   . X O O O . .    7
  b / . X X . . O     8
   c   . . . . X      9
    d /   /   /    
     e f g h i    
                  
Captures:            XXX – 2, OOO - 1
Pieces left to drop: XXX – 1, OOO – 3

Check also a modern variant, with Abalone movements: Abanondas.