ABSTRACT CROSSE

Copyright (c) 1968 David Rea, DMR Games (original rules)
This is a no-dice variant of the original game

This game is played on the following 10x10 square board (the central 2x2 area is not used):

 
  • CROSSE - The central 4x4 board ring.
    • Within the ring, forward means anticlockwise and backwards means clockwise.
    • The Crosse corners are identified with red dots in the diagram.
    • If a player covers the four Crosse corners, he may remove all friendly stones from his first row and moves again.
      • While the player covers those Corners, every stone that he moves to his first row is removed and moves again.
  • TURNS - At each turn, each player must do one of the following things:
    • Make a jump with a friendly stone over a diagonally adjacent enemy stone landing on the immediate empty cell, capturing the jumped stone. 
      • Jumping is multiple, mandatory and must maximize captures.
      • Jumping inside the Crosse can also be orthogonal around the ring.
    • Move a friendly stone.
      • Stones move diagonally backwards or forwards, and also sideways inside the Crosse, or to enter/leave the Crosse (stones leaving the Crosse may only move to cells where a regular piece could move into, this means that outside the Crosse, only 50% of the cells are reachable, just like in Checkers). 
      • Move Restriction: Each player have a set of six possible moves: Move 1, 2 or 3 cells forward and move 1, 2, 3 moves backward (sideways moves can be seen either as backward or forward moves, player's choice). On every set of six move turns, each player must execute one of these moves, until he may get a new set of six moves. 
      • While the intermediate cells may be occupied, the last cell must be empty.
      • A stone cannot pass twice thru the same cell while moving in that turn.
  • GOAL - A player wins either by:
    • Do not have any stones on board.
    • Do not have any stones on board except four stones on the Crosse corners.

The move restriction rule was designed to eliminate the dice from the original rule set, which had the following sides: 3F, 2F, 1F, 3B, 2B, 1B (e.g., 2F meaning 2 cells forward). This rule implies that the original game and this variant are different, but the freedom to move is constrained on both games. This restriction is needed to oblige the use of backward moves and introduce delay moves in the game dynamics (which is similar to reverse Checkers).

The move range

Cells [1] show where the black stone can move with a 1F.

Cells [1] show where the white stone can move with a 1B.

Notice that both stones are inside the Crosse.
The move range

The unmarked black stone with a 3F can move to any one of the cells [1] if those cells were empty.

The marked black stone with a 3F can move to any one of the cells [2] if those cells were empty.

These two examples show how a piece inside the Crosse gains a lot of mobility.

Some jumps/captures

Here we see four different captures.

White stone at f10 jumps over stone at g9 landing on [1].

White marked stone at h6 jumps over a black stone at a Crosse corner landing on [2].

Black stone at d7 (a Crosse corner) jumps over stone at d6 landing on [3]. This vertical jump is valid since the stone is in the Crosse.

Black marked stone at h4 jumps over a white stone landing on [4]. This is also valid, since the stone lands inside the Crosse.

I wish to thank Paul Jordan for valuable information about Crosse.