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Fanorona

Madagascar — fanoron-tsivy, played on nine points by five.

Who moves first?

No account, no email, nothing to install. You get a link to send to whoever you want to play.

How to play

The board

Forty-five points, nine across and five down, joined by lines.
Twenty-two stones each, which fills every point but the one in the middle.

Moving

A stone moves one step along a line, onto the empty point next to it.
That single empty point is what the whole opening is about.

Capturing

You capture by stepping towards a line of enemy stones, or by stepping directly away from one.
The whole unbroken line of enemy stones in that direction is taken, however long it is.
One step can be an approach and a withdrawal at the same time. When it is, you choose which line dies — never both.

When you have to capture

If any capture is available you have to take it. A quiet move is only legal when nothing at all can be taken.
After capturing you may capture again with the same stone, but you are free to stop after any number.
Within one turn you may not step twice in the same direction in a row, and you may not arrive at the same point twice — counting the point you started from.

Winning

You win by taking all of your opponent's stones.
Fifty half-moves with nothing captured is a draw, which is twenty-five turns each.

Which rules are these?

Fanoron-tsivy, the nine-column board, played to the rules the game's solvers use.

Fanorona is one of the few traditional games here with a settled rulebook. It was weakly solved in 2008 — with best play on both sides it is a draw — and the rule statement published alongside that work is the one followed here.

The board has smaller relatives, and one source adds a rule this does not use.

The board: Nine columns by five. Fanoron-dimy is played on five columns and fanoron-telo on three, and both are different games.
A limit on the first move: One source says only a single capture is allowed on a player's first move. Neither the published rulebook nor any solver has it, and it would change the opening, so it is not used here.

The vela is not here either. It is a handicap the loser may demand in a return match, and the unit on this site is one game rather than a series.

The rules here follow the statement published by the ICGA at icga.org.