KO-AN

Copyright (c) 1994 David Welch and Paul Whitehorn, Image Games

Ko-An is played on a 6x6 grid of octagons, which can be translated to a square board of 13x11 with the following setup:

 

CELLS -  Cells with green dots (including those under soldiers at setup) are called soldier cells. Cells with red dots (including those under Kings at setup) are called King cells.  TURN - On each turn, each player must move one of his pieces. Any piece in a soldier cell can move diagonally forward into a King empty cell. A soldier can also move into a soldier cell occupied by an enemy piece, capturing it by replacement. Any piece in a King cell can move diagonally forward into a soldier empty cell, or forward two cells into a King empty cell. A King can also move into a King cell occupied by an enemy piece, capturing it by replacement. Captures are not mandatory and are not multiple. GOAL - Wins the player that moves one friendly piece to his last row, or stalemates the adversary.

 

An example If it's Blue's turn, he can win by capture c13 with c11 (both are Kings on King cells). If it's Black's turn,  he should capture c13:c11 to prevent an immediate loss. However, Black cannot prevent Blue move e9-f10 placing a blue King into an unstoppable path. Notice that pieces in square cells must move to King cells. As an example, the black soldier at d10 cannot move to d8 (in fact, that soldier cannot move).

This game can be played at Richard's play by email server.