COLUMN

Copyright (c) 2002 Walter Joris

This game is played in the following 10x10 square board:

 

COLUMN - A connected line of friendly stones. MOVE - On each turn, a player must move one of his columns. A column makes a copy of itself along the line where's defined. No pieces are allowed between the copy and the original (so, the movement along the line cannot 'make jumps'). If the copy is adjacent (also along the line) to an enemy column with less elements, those enemy stones are transformed into neutral stones. GOAL - When there are no valid moves, wins the player with more friendly stones.

 

A starting example White started. The first two movements were c2-c3 (meaning, a white column of size one, consisted of stone c2, made a copy at c3) and c9-c8. Then White attacked with a1c3-f6h8 neutralizing two black stones. Black may answer a10c8-f5h3 also neutralizing two white stones.

This game can be played with just pencil and paper. It is presented at 100 Strategic Games for Pen and Paper by Walter Joris. This game has a capture mechanism similar to Epaminondas.