Fanorona

Fanorona is a board game indigenous to Madagascar and derived from Alquerque.

Equipment

Fanorona is played on a board of 5 rows × 9 columns, with lines connecting the intersections. Black and white stones, twenty-two each, are arranged on all points but the center.

Rules of Play

• Players alternate turns moving a piece to an adjacent vacant point on the board.
• Capturing is performed by either approaching or withdrawing from enemy pieces.
  • When a piece is moved next to an enemy piece, all adjacent enemy pieces in that line of motion are captured (i.e. only those forming a straight unbroken line).
  • Conversely, when a piece is moved away from an enemy piece, that enemy piece and all those lined behind it are captured.
• A player's first capture ends their turn but, in all later turns, a capturing piece is allowed to continue making successive captures, provided each capture does so along a different line that other captures that turn.

See also

Fanorona can be played by email, using Richard Rognlie's Play-By-eMail Server.