Fanorona

How to play Fanorona

Fanorona is the game of Madagascar, played at the court of the Merina kings and still found all over the island. Legend has it that Prince Andriantompokoindrindra lost the throne to his brother Andrianjaka over a hard position on the board.

The rules

• The board. Forty-five points in five rows of nine, joined by lines along the rows and the columns. Diagonal lines run only through every second point — the strong points, where the lines cross. The pieces move along the lines.
• Setting up. Each player has twenty-two pieces, and together they fill every point except the centre. White has the two rows nearest to it, Black the two far rows. The middle row goes, from the left: white, black, white, black, the empty centre, white, black, white, black.
• A move. White begins. A piece steps along a line to the empty point next to it.
• Taking by approach. If the step brings the piece right up to an enemy piece on the next point in the same direction, that piece is taken — and so is every enemy piece behind it in an unbroken line.
• Taking by withdrawal. If the piece steps straight away from an enemy piece next to it, that piece is taken, together with the unbroken line of enemies behind it.
• One or the other. When a single step could take both ways, you choose which.
• You must take. If any capture is possible, you must make one. A plain step that takes nothing — a paika move — is only allowed when there is no capture anywhere on the board.
• Taking on. After a capture, the same piece may go on capturing in the same turn, as often as it can. It may never come back to a point it has already stood on this turn, and it may not go on in the same direction as its last step. You may stop whenever you like: press «Stop here».
• The end. Whoever takes every enemy piece wins. A player who cannot move has lost.

In this version

• Fifty moves without a capture is a draw.
• The machine looks a few moves ahead, counting each step of a capture chain as a move: pieces first, then room to move.

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