Amazons (game)

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The game of the Amazons (often called Amazons for short ; El Juego de las Amazonas in Spanish ) is an abstract strategic board game for two players that was invented by the Argentinian Walter Zamkauskas in 1988. It belongs to the territorial game family and is distantly related to Go . El Juego de las Amazonas (The Game of Amazons) is a registered trademark of Ediciones de Mente.

The game of the Amazons is on a 10 × 10 chessboard (or an international checkerboard played). The two players play with white and black; Each player has four Amazons, which are placed on the board as shown in the picture at the beginning. In addition, around 50 blockade stones are required, which symbolize "poisonous" arrows.

Amazons

Rules of the game

The players take turns, white begins. Every move consists of two parts: First, an Amazon of your own is moved to an empty neighboring square or across several empty squares in an orthogonal or diagonal direction, just like a queen in chess . She is not allowed to cross or enter a field that is already occupied by one of her own or an opposing Amazon or an arrow (blockade stone). Then the drawn Amazon shoots a "poisonous" arrow (blockade stone) at another field from the end point of her move. This arrow can fly as far as you like in any orthogonal or diagonal direction, again like a queen in chess. He may also be shot backwards in the direction of the field from which the Amazon just pulled. However, an arrow may not cross a field or land on a field where another arrow or an amazon is already located. There is a compulsory move: the player to move must always draw an amazon and shoot an arrow. The player who cannot move first has lost.

The end of an amazon game. White gave up. The last move was Black h2-g1 / f2, i.e. H. the Amazon moved from h2 to g1 and shot an arrow to f2. White only has 9 moves, while Black has 31.

strategy

The strategy of the game is based on using the arrows (and also your own four Amazons) to limit the mobility of the opposing Amazons, and gradually demarcating areas with arrows so that the opponent can only move in smaller regions while you are moving own Amazons placed in the larger areas. Each move reduces the available playing area. At the end of the game, each Amazon is in an area that is sealed off from the opposing Amazons. Then it can only move and fire arrows within its own territory until it finally has no way of moving.

properties

The game is cycle free. An earlier position cannot be repeated, as a blockade is added with each move. A draw is not possible, as inevitably at some point a player can no longer move and loses. White has an advantage due to the right of the first move, but it is only small and does not necessarily have to be equalized. If you want to do it, you can z. For example, you can use a swap rule, as is common in hex : one player makes the first move, the other can then swap colors. There is also the option of giving Komi as in Go: if a player can no longer move, he may pass once for each Komi and only loses when he has used up all Komi. This is also a way of giving a handicap to a weaker player.

history

El Juego de las Amazonas was first featured in a Spanish-language article in the Argentine puzzle magazine El Acertijo (number 4, December 1992). An authorized English translation by Michael Keller first appeared in the chess magazine NOST-Algia. Other game magazines also published the rules, which gave the game some enthusiastic support. The internet has made the game more popular, and it is considered by many to be one of the best and deepest abstract board games out there.

Michael Keller wrote the first Amazon computer program in 1994 (in Fortran with a text interface). Several more powerful programs have been developed by various authors over the past few years (see Playing Online ) .

An authorized version of the game appeared in the "Transpose Collection" by Kadon Enterprises.

play online

There are several places on the internet where amazons can be played. This includes:

Web links