MAGNETISM

Copyright (c) 2003 João Neto

Magnetism is played on a 9x9 square board with the following setup:

 

PIE RULE - One player drops three red stones (called attractor stones) on empty cells. The other player chooses colors and who starts. MOVE PHASE - On each turn, each player moves one of his stones (called a charmed). A charmed may: Move to an (orthogonal or diagonal) adjacent empty cell, provided that it becomes closer to one attractor Move into a cell occupied by an attractor. Then the player (a) captures his own charmed, and (b) moves the attractor to another empty cell not adjacent to any friendly charmed. Instead of moving, if the player has a line of 2+ friendly stones adjacent to another charmed (of either color) on the same line, he can push it away thru that line direction until it finds an edge or another piece. GOAL - Wins the player that captures all friendly stones.

A push move may be useful to move a friend closer an attractor, or move an enemy away from one.

An example White's turn. He may apply two pushes, the first in the marked white stone, which will put it at the green dot; and the second in the marked black stone, moving it to the red dot.