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Breakthrough is an abstract strategy board game invented by Dan Troyka in 2000 and made available as a Zillions of Games file (ZRF). It won the 2001 8x8 Game Design Competition, even though the game was originally played on a 7x7 board, as it is trivially extensible to larger board sizes.
The board is initially set up as shown on the first diagram. To play the game on a different-sized board, just fill the two front and two back rows with pieces; the board need not be square. [1]
Choose a player to go first; then play alternates, with each player moving one piece per turn.
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| 8 |  | 8 | |||||||
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| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
A piece may move one space straight or diagonally forward if the target square is empty. In the second diagram, the white piece on c5 can move into any of the marked squares.
A piece may move into a square containing an opponent's piece if and only if that square is one step diagonally forward. The opponent's piece is removed and the player's piece replaces it. For example, the black piece can capture either the white piece e2 or the one on g2; it would replace them if it chose to capture. Note that capturing is not compulsory, nor is it "chained" as in checkers; a player can only capture one piece in a turn.
The first player to reach the opponent's home row — the one farthest from the player — is the winner. [1] If all the pieces of a player are captured, that player loses. A draw is impossible [2] because pieces can only move ahead (or be captured), and the piece closest to the opponent's home row always has at least one forward diagonal move available.
Although the rules are quite simple (and were the simplest rules in the 2001 8x8 Game Design Competition), the strategy is complex and sophisticated. [2] Generally, an effective offensive strategy is to recognize and attack "pivotal" pieces which are in positions to block multiple routes to victory. An effective defense is to arrange multiple blocking pieces in a blocking pattern (since a single defending piece can not effectively block a single attacking piece). [2]
Smaller variants of the game have been solved: [3]
Checkers, also known as draughts, is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers developed from alquerque. The term "checkers" derives from the checkered board which the game is played on, whereas "draughts" derives from the verb "to draw" or "to move".
Mak-yek is a two-player abstract strategy board game played in Thailand and Myanmar. Players move their pieces as in the rook in Chess and attempt to capture their opponent's pieces through custodian and intervention capture. The game may have been first described in literature by Captain James Low a writing contributor in the 1839 work Asiatic Researches; or, Transactions of the Society, Instituted in Bengal, For Inquiring into The History, The Antiquities, The Arts and Sciences, and Literature of Asian, Second Part of the Twentieth Volume in which he wrote chapter X On Siamese Literature and documented the game as Maak yék. Another early description of the game is by H.J.R. Murray in his 1913 work A History of Chess, and the game was written as Maak-yek.
Martian Chess is an abstract strategy game for two or four players invented by Andrew Looney in 1999. It is played with Icehouse pyramids on a chessboard. To play with a number of players other than two or four, a non-Euclidean surface can be tiled to produce a board of the required size, allowing up to six players.
Janggi, sometimes called Korean chess, is a strategy board game popular in Korea. The game was derived from xiangqi of China and is very similar to it, including the starting position of most of the pieces, and the 9×10 gameboard, but without the xiangqi "river" dividing the board horizontally in the middle.
Gounki is an abstract strategy game in which pieces can combine and disperse to affect their movement possibilities. Played on an eight-by-eight square grid, the goal is for a player to move their pieces off the opposite end of the board while preventing the opponent from doing the same.
Fox games are a category of asymmetric board games for two players, where one player is the fox and tries to eat the geese / sheep, and the opposing player directs the geese/sheep and attempts to trap the fox, or reach a destination on the board. In another variant, Fox and Hounds, the fox merely tries to evade the hounds. There are several versions known:
Terrace is a strategy game played by two, three, or four players on a multi-leveled 8×8 board. It is most widely known for also being a prop in the American television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. There are also computer versions of the game.
Fields of Action is an abstract strategy board game for two players.
English draughts or American checkers, also called straight checkers, or simply draughts or checkers, is a form of the strategy board game checkers. It is played on an 8×8 checkerboard with 12 pieces per side. The pieces move and capture diagonally forward, until they reach the opposite end of the board, when they are crowned and can thereafter move and capture both backward and forward.
Camelot is a strategy board game for two players. It was invented by George S. Parker late in the 19th century, and was one of the first games published by Parker Brothers, originally under the name Chivalry.
Turkish draughts is a variant of draughts (checkers) played in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and several other locations around the Mediterranean Sea and Middle East.
Russian draughts is a variant of draughts (checkers) played in Russia and some parts of the former USSR, as well as parts of Eastern Europe and Israel.
Neutron is a two-player abstract strategy game invented by Robert A. Kraus. The game was first published in the Playroom section of Games & Puzzles 71 in July/August 1978. It is a game where each player moves two different pieces in a single turn without the use of dice.
Zamma is a two-player abstract strategy game from Africa. It is especially played in North Africa. The game is similar to Alquerque and draughts. Board sizes vary, but they are square boards, such as 5x5 or 9x9 square grids with left and right diagonal lines running through several intersection points of the board. One could think of the 5x5 board as a standard Alquerque board, but with additional diagonal lines, and the 9x9 board as four standard Alquerque boards combined, but no additional diagonal lines are added. The initial setup is also similar to Alquerque, where every space on the board is filled with each player's pieces except for the middle point of the board. Furthermore, each player's pieces are also set up on their respective half of the board. The game specifically resembles draughts in that pieces must move in the forward directions until they are crowned "Mullah" which is the equivalent of the king in draughts. The Mullah can move in any direction. In North Africa, the black pieces are referred to as men, and the white pieces as women. In the Sahara, short sticks represent the men, and camel dung represent the women.
Kharbaga is a two-player abstract strategy game from North Africa. In a way, it is a miniature version of Zamma; however, there are more diagonal lines per square on the board as compared to Zamma. The game is considered part of the Zamma family. The game is also similar to Alquerque and draughts. The board is essentially an Alquerque board with twice the number of diagonal lines or segments allowing for greater freedom of movement. The initial setup is also similar to Alquerque, where every space on the board is filled with each player's pieces except for the middle point of the board. Moreover, each player's pieces are also set up on each player's half of the board. The game specifically resembles draughts in that pieces must move in the forward directions until they are crowned "Mullah" which is the equivalent of the King in draughts. The Mullah can move in any direction.
Salta is two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Konrad Heinrich Büttgenbach in 1899 in Germany. Büttgenbach (1870–1939) was born in Heerdt, near Düsseldorf, Germany. The game attained its highest popularity in the early 1900s before World War I especially in France and Germany. The World Trade Fair of 1900 in Paris exhibited a Salta board made of mahogany with golden counters adorned with more than 5,000 diamonds. Famous players were the US chess master Frank Marshall, the German World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker, and the French actress Sarah Bernhardt.
Dameo is an abstract strategy board game for two players invented by Christian Freeling in 2000. It is a variant of the game draughts and is played on an 8×8 checkered gameboard.
Congo is a chess variant invented by Demian Freeling in 1982 when he was nearly 8 years old. His father encouraged him to design a variant using a 7×7 gameboard. Demian was already familiar with chess and xiangqi, and the result blends some features from both. Congo became the second-most popular chess variant at the Fanaat games club in Enschede, the Netherlands.
Malaysian checkers or Singaporean checkers, is a variant of the board game of draughts played primarily in Malaysia and Singapore, especially among the elder men. Similar to the Canadian checkers, it is played on a 12x12 checkered board. The game can also be played on a 8x8 board if a 12x12 board is unavailable. However, it is distinct from Checkers and Canadian Checkers in terms of its additional rules. Popular alternative names used locally for this game include Dum and Dam.