Pacru

Last updated

Pacru is an abstract board game invented by Mike Wellman. Pacru has much in common with Chess (piece movement with sharp tactical exchanges and long-term positional considerations) and Go (game) (strategic concepts such as area control and the 'life and death' of pieces). Pacru can be played by 2,3 or 4 people, each controlling a single colour. Commercial versions will usually come with the rules for two other games that can be played with the same equipment, Azacru and Shacru. [1] Pacru, Azacru and Shacru have all been featured at the Mind Sports Olympiad. [2] [3]

Contents

Overview and terminology

Pacru is played on a 9x9 grid where each point in the grid is called a "field". The grid is divided into nine borderlands, or "borderland area", each consisting of nine fields. Pieces are called "chevrons" in the official rules. Each player starts with 3 pieces (in the 3- or 4-player version) or 4 pieces (in the 2-player version). During play, each player will attempt to place markers of their colour on the board with the eventual goal of dominating the board. A field with a piece on it, regardless of whether there is a marker on it or not, is called "occupied". A field without a marker or a piece on it is called "empty". [4]

Rules (Pacru website)

The available movements for this Black piece PacruOnePieceMovements.JPG
The available movements for this Black piece

Basic Movement

Pieces in Pacru point in a particular direction. When they move, they may move straight ahead or forty-five degrees to the left or right of the direction the piece is facing. The piece ends the move pointing in the direction of movement. Pieces may only land on a field that is empty, or which has a marker of their own colour. The exception is during piece capture (see Capturing below).

Placement of Markers

When a piece crosses a border, a marker must be placed on any empty field in the borderland area to which the piece has moved which can be the field on which the piece lands. Markers may not be placed on fields without a marker, but occupied by another piece already in the borderland area. For borderland areas where all fields have markers on them, see 'Filled Borderlands' below.

Power of Movement

Pieces are always able to move at least one square. If the borderland in which the piece starts its move has N markers of the players' colour, then the piece may move up to N squares. As an example, say the Red player has a piece on e1 (using chess algebraic notation) pointing up the board and the borderland area has four Red markers in it. Their piece may move to any of the following squares:

Moves are always in straight lines. It is not allowed to change direction during long moves. Pieces may not jump over other pieces (irrespective of colour) except if the start and end fields already have a marker of their own colour (see Connections below). As in the previous section, if the piece crosses a border with a long-range jump, a marker is placed in the area to which the piece has moved.

Connections

A jump from a marker of their own colour to another marker of their own colour is called a "connection". When this happens, the player must fill in the fields between the start and end fields with their own colour. This may involve replacing markers of another player (these markers should be returned to the opponent). The exception is if the moves jumps over another piece (friendly or not), when there is no benefit.

If a piece makes both a long-range connection jump and also crosses a border, the player must choose between filling in the fields (for the jump) or getting one marker in the area to which the piece moved (for the border crossing). It is not possible to get both benefits.

Filled Borderlands

When a piece crosses a border and moves into a new borderland, a marker must be placed on any unoccupied (i.e. empty) field. Later in the game, some borderland areas may be completely filled with markers with no empty fields. When this happens, the player must replace any of the opponents' markers in the area with their own, returning the marker to their opponent. If the area is already completely filled with markers of their own colour, the player receives no benefit. If any field is empty but occupied by a piece, then the area is not completely filled and no marker may be placed on this field.

Capturing

When a piece is able to move onto the field occupied by one of the opponents' pieces, the piece is said to be "under attack". Attack is mutual if both players' pieces attack each other. In order to capture, however, the player must have two (or more) pieces attacking the same enemy piece. It is not sufficient to capture with only one attacking piece. There must be direct line-of-sight - pieces may not jump over other pieces to attack.

Capturing, as in chess, is by replacement. Move one of the attacking pieces onto the opponents' field, remove the enemy piece and place a marker on the field, replacing an opponents' marker (if any). Note that a marker on the attacked field does not protect the enemy piece. If the attacking piece also crosses a border, a marker is also placed in the area to which the piece has moved.

Blocked Pieces and Rotation

When a piece has no legal moves it is "blocked". This happens when:

Pieces may become unblocked by the actions of other pieces, but can also be unblocked by "rotation". To rotate, the player rotates their piece forty-five (one rotation) or ninety (two rotations) either left or right. When they do this, the player removes 2 markers (45-degree rotation) or 4 markers (ninety degree rotation) as the cost for rotation. Markers may be taken from unoccupied fields only and can be anywhere on the board. Note that rotation is the players' full turn i.e. the player does not get a rotation and move in the same turn.

Meetings

A "meeting" occurs when a piece moves such that at the end of the move (including placement of any markers) the following conditions are met:

When a meeting occurs, the player gets a special meeting bonus which is to place one of their markers anywhere on the board, provided the field is unoccupied. The field may have a marker of their opponents' colour, in which case the replaced marker should be returned to your opponent. Meetings are by movement only. It is not possible to rotate into a meeting. Meetings are hard to achieve, and games are likely to have none. In tournament play (see below), no benefit is gained by a meeting if the opponent has 8 or fewer markers on the board.

Winning the Game

There are three win conditions in Pacru:

World Championships

The game has been included at the annual Mind Sports Olympiad or at a World Championship event hosted by the inventor (Mike Wellman). The World Championships have been won multiple times by Pentamind champions Alain Dekker, David M. Pearce and Martyn Hamer.

Time controls for the World Championships have varied, with 20 minutes + 10 seconds-per-move being typical. In tournament play, no additional benefit is gained by a meeting if the opponent has 8 or fewer markers on the board (see Meetings above).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese checkers</span> Abstract strategy board game

Chinese checkers (US) or Chinese chequers (UK), known as Sternhalma in German, is a strategy board game of German origin that can be played by two, three, four, or six people, playing individually or with partners. The game is a modern and simplified variation of the game Halma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludo</span> Board game

Ludo is a strategy-based board game for two to four players, in which the players race their four tokens from start to finish according to the rolls of a single die. Like other cross and circle games, Ludo originated from the Indian game Pachisi. The game and its variations are popular in many countries and under various names.

<i>Stratego</i> Strategy board game

Stratego is a strategy board game for two players on a board of 10×10 squares. Each player controls 40 pieces representing individual officer and soldier ranks in an army. The pieces have Napoleonic insignia. The objective of the game is to either find and capture the opponent's Flag or to capture so many enemy pieces that the opponent cannot make any further moves. Stratego has simple enough rules for young children to play but a depth of strategy that is also appealing to adults.

A fairy chess piece, variant chess piece, unorthodox chess piece, or heterodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventional chess but incorporated into certain chess variants and some unorthodox chess problems, known as fairy chess. Compared to conventional pieces, fairy pieces vary mostly in the way they move, but they may also follow special rules for capturing, promotions, etc. Because of the distributed and uncoordinated nature of unorthodox chess development, the same piece can have different names, and different pieces can have the same name in various contexts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jungle (board game)</span> Board game

Jungle or dou shou qi is a modern Chinese board game with an obscure history. A British version known as "Jungle King" was sold in the 1960s by the John Waddington company. The game is played on a 7×9 board and is popular with children in the Far East.

Tamerlane chess is a medieval chess variant. Like modern chess, it is derived from shatranj. It was developed in Central Asia during the reign of Emperor Timur, and its invention is also attributed to him. Because Tamerlane chess is a larger variant of chaturanga, it is also called Shatranj Al-Kabir, as opposed to Shatranj as-saghir. Although the game is similar to modern chess, it is distinctive in that there are varieties of pawn, each of which promotes in its own way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chu shogi</span> Shogi variant

Chu shogi is a strategy board game native to Japan. It is similar to modern shogi in its rules and gameplay. Its name means "mid-sized shogi", from a time when there were three sizes of shogi variants that were regularly being played. Chu shogi seems to have been developed in the early 14th century as a derivative of dai shogi. There are earlier references, but it is not clear that they refer to the game as we now know it.

Yari shogi is a modern variant of shogi ; however, it is not Japanese. It was invented in 1981 by Christian Freeling of the Netherlands. This game accentuates shogi’s intrinsically forward range of direction by giving most of the pieces the ability to move any number of free squares orthogonally forward like a shogi lance. The opposite is true of promoted pieces which can move backward with the same power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hasami shogi</span>

Hasami shogi is a variant of shogi. The game has two main variants, and all Hasami variants, unlike other shogi variants, use only one type of piece, and the winning objective is not checkmate. One main variant involves capturing all but one of the opponent's men; the other involves building an unbroken vertical or horizontal chain of five-in-a-row.

Whale Shogi is a modern variant of shogi. It is not, however, Japanese: it was invented by R. Wayne Schmittberger of the United States in 1981. The game is similar to Judkins shogi, but with more pieces, and the pieces are named after types of whale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tenjiku shogi</span>

Tenjiku shogi is a large-board variant of shogi. The game dates back to the 15th or 16th century and was based on the earlier chu shogi, which itself was based on dai shogi.

<i>PÜNCT</i> 2005 abstract board game

PÜNCT is a two-player strategy board game. It is the sixth release in the GIPF project of seven abstract strategy games, although it is considered the fifth game in the project. It was released in 2005. PÜNCT won the Games Magazine Best Abstract Strategy game for 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banqi</span>

Banqi or Half Chess, also known as Dark Chess (暗棋) or Blind Chess (盲棋), is a two-player Chinese board game played on a 4×8 grid, or half of the xiangqi board. Most games last between ten and twenty minutes, but advanced games can last for an hour or more. Banqi is a social game, usually played for fun rather than serious competition. A more formal version of Banqi may have evolved into the games Jungle and modern Luzhanqi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aeroplane chess</span> 20th-century board game

Aeroplane chess is a Chinese cross-and-circle board game similar to the Western game of Ludo and the Indian game of Pachisi. Developed in the 20th century, aeroplane chess features airplanes as pieces instead of the more abstract pawns and beehive-shaped pieces found in the games from which it is derived. Aeroplane chess has spread around the world, especially in Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ringo (board game)</span>

Ringo is a two-player strategy board game from Germany, invented perhaps in the late 19th or early 20th century. The version of rules described here is from R.C. Bell's Discovering Old Board Games (1973) which is a translation from a German text by M. C. Oswald. The game simulates a siege of a citadel. Attackers are attempting to enter the citadel while defenders are trying to protect it and reduce the number of attackers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lines of Action</span> Abstract strategy board game

Lines of Action is an abstract strategy board game for two players invented by Claude Soucie. The objective is to connect all of one's pieces into a single group. The game was recommended by the Spiel des Jahres in 1988.

<i>Kamisado</i> Abstract strategy board game

Kamisado is an abstract strategy board game for two players that is played on an 8x8 multicoloured board. Each player controls a set of eight octagonal dragon tower pieces. Each player's set of dragon towers contains a tower to match each of the colours that appear on the squares of the board. One player's towers have gold dragons mounted on the top, while the other player's towers are topped with black dragons. The game was published in 2008 by Burley Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hexdame</span>

Hexdame is a strategy board game for two players invented by Christian Freeling in 1979. The game is a literal adaptation of the game international draughts to a hexagonal gameboard.

Portal chess is a chess variant which uses at least two fairy pieces called portals. These pieces can be easily added by using poker chips, coins or other suitably sized objects. The game seeks to incorporate portals to allow pieces to teleport around the board. Apart from the portals and their ruleset, the game often plays like ordinary chess, including the en passant capture, castling, and promotion.

References

  1. ↑ Kevin Barnes (28 August 2009). "Cheam man's mind bending puzzles at mental olympiad". Lancashire Telegraph. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  2. ↑ Josh Tapper (12 June 2012). "Underwater chess is one of the mind games at Mind Sports Olympiad". The Star. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  3. ↑ "2012 Results". MSO World. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  4. ↑ "Review of Pacru". RPGnet. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.