Abalone is a two-player abstract strategy board game designed by Michel Lalet and Laurent Lévi in 1987. Players are represented by opposing black and white marbles on a hexagonal board. The objective is to be the first to push six of the opponent's marbles off the edge of the board.

Rules

The board consists of 61 circular spaces arranged in a hexagon, five on a side. Each player has 14 marbles that are initially arranged in the starting position shown above (Belgian daisy). The players take turns, with the black marbles moving first. For each move, a player moves a straight line of one, two or three marbles of their colour one space in one of six directions. The move can either be in a single direction (in-line move) or parallel to the line of marbles (side move).

A player can also push their opponents marbles (a "sumito") that are in a line to their own with an in-line move only. They can only push if the pushing line has more marbles than the pushed line (i.e. three can push two, two can push one). Marbles must be pushed to an empty space, or off the board! The winner is the first player to push six of the opponent's marbles off the edge of the board.

Repetition can occur and, like chess, we have implemented 3-fold repetition as a draw.

Tutorial Study

To learn how to move the marbles, use the following tutorial study.

Strategy

In general it is good to:

• Keep the marbles close to the centre of the board and force the opponent to move to the edges.
• Keep the marbles close together for increased defence and attack, especially in a diamond shape to be able to push or defend in any direction.
• Pushing the opponent off the board is not usually a good idea if it leads to weaknesses in the player's geometry.
• Setting a "trap" by making a marble weak in one direction allows for opponent to weaken centre defences.