STEP BY STEP

Copyright (c) 1997 Christopher Fuchs

This game is played on the following 5x5 square board:

There are enough neutral stones off board (in these diagrams, the white pieces).

CELL LEVEL - The number of neutral stones on a specific cell. Initially, the level of the central cell is five. TURN -  On each turn, each player must execute two actions by this order: First, moves his stone to an orthogonally adjacent valid cell. A cell is valid if (a) it is not occupied by the opponent's stone and (b) it has the same level, or one less or one more than the initial moving cell. When not ascending, the move may be multiple, i.e., the player may continue moving to orthogonal adjacent valid cells with equal or lower level. When the piece moves up one level, the move sequence stops. At each move, the piece cannot return to its previous cell. Second, drops a neutral stone on a cell with only zero or more neutrals, which is orthogonally adjacent to his own stone. GOAL - The winner is whoever (a) moves his friendly stone to the central cell, or (b) stalemates the adversary. If the game uses a limited number of neutrals, the game is declared a draw if all neutrals are used and either goal is not achieved.

The original game rules also refer L-shape movements but do not explicit more.

Some initial moves Red just placed another neutral at c4 to prevent Black to move there (b4 and c4 now have a difference of two neutrals).

Winning by Stalemate Black moved b4-b3 and dropped a neutral at b2. He has won because now Red cannot move his piece.

I wish to thank Bernard Wack for sending me information about this game.