PHUTBALL

Copyright (c) 1982 John Conway

Philosopher's Football or Phutball was invented by John Conway and is described in 'Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays'. The game is a two player game played on a 21x15 square board.

DROP / MOVE - On each turn a player may place a White stone or else move the Black stone. The Black stone only moves by jumping adjacent (including diagonals) White stones which are then removed from the board. If after jumping one or more White stones, the Black stone lands next to another stone(s), it may jump them as well. This is not mandatory. GOAL - The object of the game is to move the Black stone your goal line (the first player's goal is at the top) by jumping over White stones.

It seems to be a good tip to delay moving the ball as long as possible, and construct a chain towards victory. Also, a stone on a knight's jump from the ball is usually useless.

An example A winning sequence for the top player is jumping from cell [1] to cell [7]. There is also another faster winning sequence, can you find it?

The game can be handicapped by initially placing the Black stone near the weaker player's goal line. You can also play Phutball with Zillions (implemented by Matthew Burke). However the engine does not play well this game.