GUERRILLA CHECKERS

Copyright (c) 2010 Brian R. Train

This game is played on an empty 8x8 square chess board.

Use 6 checkers and 66 Go stones (or smaller, it depends on the size of the board, check why below)

The Counterinsurgent (COIN) player places his checkers on black squares in the middle of the board, as shown. The Guerrilla player starts with no pieces on the board, but begins by placing one stone anywhere on the board, then a second stone orthogonally adjacent to the first.

Guerrilla Player - The Guerrilla player does not move his pieces. Instead, he places two and only two stones per turn on the board, on the points (intersections) of the squares. The first stone must be orthogonally adjacent to any stone on the board; the second stone must be orthogonally adjacent to the first stone placed. He may not place stones on the board edge points. He captures an enemy checker by surrounding it (i.e. having a stone, or a board edge point, on each of the four points of the square the checker occupies – note this makes the edge of the board very dangerous for the COIN player). The checker is removed from the board. COIN Player - COIN player moves one checker per turn, one square diagonally as a King in regular checkers, or makes captures by jumping over the point between two squares. He is not forced to capture if he does not want to, but if he does he must take all possible captures. Captured stones are removed from the board. GOAL - The player who clears the board of all enemy pieces at the end of his turn wins. The Guerrilla player loses if he runs out of stones

Some notes from the author (the previous rule text is also his):

Variant: With competent play, the COIN player will often lose. Players should play one game each, switching roles, and the winner of the match is the one who can defeat the COIN player using the smallest number of stones.

Notes on tactics:
Guerrilla player – remember the words of Mao Zedong:
- “The enemy advances, we retreat.” It’s OK if you lose lots of pieces in a turn (and you will): as long as you have one left, you are still in the game. Play where the enemy can’t get at you right away.
- “The enemy camps, we harass.” Exploit unit boundary confusion by playing between enemy checkers when you can – he can’t jump you there.
- “The enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.” Your forces do not move but they “flow”: think of your pieces as an ever-growing web to trap the enemy. Deploy lines of stones to hamper his movement and trap him – he has to move next to you before he can jump you.
COIN player:
- You have the tougher job – you can mow them down but they will keep coming back!
- Watch for any mistakes he might make – if you can completely clear a whole corner of the board of enemy stones, it will be a while before he can return there. But you must do a complete job.
- Be careful of the edge of the board – any checker left there can be eliminated with only two stones, or even one stone in the corners, if there are enemy nearby. Don’t run into such an ambush.
- The Guerrilla will always be setting up thin walls and traps for you – watch where he puts these. If he makes too large a “string” you can reduce his forces to almost nothing in one move.

More info at boardgeek.