BASHNYA

Traditional ~1875 Russia 

This game is played on a 8x8 square board with the following setup:

 

TURN - On each turn, each player moves a friendly stack. The color of the piece at the stack's top (called the commander), determines ownership. The commander movement determines the stack's movement. Commanders can be soldiers (the starting pieces) or officers. The enemy pieces on a stack are called prisoners. A soldier can move diagonally forward to an empty cell, as in draughts. When it reaches the last row, it is promoted to an officer. A officer can move forward and backwards over a diagonal line of empty cells. Capture is mandatory and multiple. Players must choose their capture sequence, it is not mandatory to maximize the number of capturing pieces. Soldiers captures by the checkers short leap, while officers capture by the long leap. The captured piece is not removed from the board, but is picked up under the attacker as a prisoner as it leaps over it. If this piece is a stack, it will only lose its commander. A piece may attack the same stack twice in the same move. Officers in prison do not lose their status, which may be reused if they are later released. GOAL - Loses the player with no valid moves.

Notice that it is not possible to have an alternation of colors in a column.

	An example White plays a forced capturing sequence. The Officer after being captured, maintained its status when released.
	An example Black's move. He must capture the white soldier, losing all pieces on the next move.

Check Lasca for a well-known variant.