Abalone (board game)

Super As d' Or 1989 Game of the Year 1989: shortlist Mensa Select Mind Games 1990 As d' Or 1998: As d' Or de la décennie 1988-1998

Abalone is a board game for two people, which was developed by French game designers Lalet Michel and Laurent Lévi 1987. Abalone won in 1988 at the Concours International de Jeux de Société de Créateurs; In the same year the game was released by the publisher abalone games. Meanwhile, the game is distributed internationally by various publishers since 1997 by Hasbro under the label of Parker Brothers. It was given the Super As d' Or in 1989, was on the shortlist for the Game of the Year in 1989 and was selected as one of five games at the Mensa Select Mind Games 1990. In 1998 it received the As d' Or as " Game of the Decade".

Game Description

Abalone is played on a hexagonal board with 61 holes. At the edge of each 14 white and black balls are racked. By tactically clever move of one, two or three of its own balls must be made to displace the opponent's balls off the field. If one has thrown six opponents balls from the playing field, you win.

Basic position

Various basic settings are possible. In most cases, the default initial position at the beginning is played as it leads to less complex positions. In the standard base position, each with 14 balls of the players face each other. In the first row there are five balls, in the second row and six balls in the middle of the third row of three balls. Players alternate turns of the series, Black always starts.

In these pictures, it is clear that both players from the beginning aim to apply pressure to the center and to occupy this with as many balls: Both players draw with three balls into the center of the board. Usually it succeeds in attracting, Black, initially to occupy the central midfield. Characteristic of the standard game, especially in the opening phase, the block game, with attacking the two opposing blocs against each other.

Since 9 September 1999, the abalone Mind Sports Olympiad is being implemented with the basic position "Belgian daisy". This basic position leads to more complex positions. The typical for the standard basic position block in position and after the opening is not possible and a defensive style of play is not successful. Moreover, it is not possible black, as in the standard installation to occupy the central midfield relatively stable in three moves.

On the " Netabalone server" and other basic postures ( German daisy, daisy Dutch, Swiss daisy, Alien, Fujiyama, Snakes variant, infiltration, Domination, etc.) are played alongside Belgian daisy and standard.

You can push the balls in all six directly adjacent gaps. It is possible for one, two or three balls to move so long as the balls in one direction ( diagonally ) are moved and all the adjacent gaps are free. Only one movement is permitted to fill a gap per turn.

Push opponent's balls

If the field is occupied by an opponent's ball, it can be displaced only by several of your own balls in a line from there, if there is an empty space behind it or the opponent's ball is moved over the edge. This is called Sumitomo. There are three different Sumitos:

• 2-1 Sumitomo: two own balls push an opponent's ball
• 3-1 Sumitomo: three of his own balls push an opponent's ball
• 3-2 Sumitomo: three of his own balls slide two opposing balls

If the opponent has three or more balls assembled in a row, so you can not move it, just include more than three bullets do not own, because you can just slide up to three balls at the same time. Standing, the same number of own and enemy bullets over, it is called a draw.

Target

The aim of the game is to push as many enemy bullets on the sidelines. These balls are then out of the game. The first player forced out six opponents balls wins.

Notation

As in chess, there are also abalone in a notation system for trains. Here, the transverse lines are lettered from A to I ( Black Base A is ) and are the diagonals 1-9 ( left black diagonal is 1).

I O O O O O       H O O O O O O      G · · O O O · ·     F · · · · · · · ·    D · · · · · · · · ·     D · · · · · · · · 9      C · · · X X X X 8       B X X X X X X 7        A X X X X X 6            1 2 3 4 5 A train is designated by the start and end point of the last -shifting stone. A Diagonal train is designated as the initial positions of the two outermost stones and with the final position of these two outermost stones (see " Opening by black ", " second train by white ").

If an opposing checker forced out, this is indicated with an asterisk.

Official abalone competitions

The abalone World Cup is part of the thought - sports Olympiad; there won:

Gert Schnider and Thomas Fenner participated in the development of the Aba -Pro program. Marc Blanked 1992 was world champion in Othello.

Official matches are always played with a clock. Here are timelines of ten minutes per train rule.

In France, the Fédération Française des Joueurs d' Abalone for an increase in gaming culture and the competition practice begins. There are now three abalone clubs.

Their official tournament rules state that the tournaments are to be played in the Swiss system. As points for the winner from the crowded field opposing balls are counted. The loser gets zero points. Is there a tie in points after a player has reached its time limit, so his opponent can apply for a time bonus. This is calculated from his remaining time. If it is more than two minutes, he gets one point, over three minutes, two points ... about seven minutes so he gets six points. The same number of points will be deducted from the opponent. Prevails even after this procedure a tie as both players zero points.

In 2003 was held in Graz in the framework of the 8th Computer Olympiad, a competition abalone, at which only two programs participated. Here is the program " AbaPro " won ( T. Werner, Gert Schnider ) on the program " Nacre " ( P. Sommerlund ).

On the Netabalone server regularly - several times a week - different online tournaments conducted, organized by the i - abalone community. The round Tournament held - in 2008 was for the first time a world championship in a double round round-robin tournament, followed by a final tournament of the best two players - Alex Borello and Pierre Alfaro. On the double round round-robin tournament also had two Mind Sports Olympiad abalone winner - Alex Borello (2004) and Vincent Frochot (2007) - participated.

Variants

There are numerous game variations. In addition to several game variations for two players are also multi-colored balls on offer, with which you can play with up to six different players.