Breakthrough (board game)

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Breakthrough ("breakthrough") is a strategic board game that was invented by the American Dan Troyka in 2000. The game won the 2001 8x8 game design competition hosted by About.com and the Canadian magazine " Abstract Games ".

Breakthrough can be played online at Little Golem and Super Duper Games. A game of the same name was invented by the Dutchman Christian Freeling back in 1984.

regulate

Breakthrough was originally played on a board that had 7x7 squares. For the game competition, the playing field was expanded to 8x8 fields. There are also versions that are played on 5x5 or 6x6 fields.

  • The parties (yellow and black) each have 16 similar pieces in their color (on the 8x8 board). At the beginning they are placed on the two rows that are closest to the respective player (as with the basic chess position).
  • The players take turns, yellow begins. In your turn you have to move, passing is not allowed.
  • A move is made by moving one of your figures to the space directly in front of the figure if it is empty, or to a space diagonally in front of the figure if it is empty or occupied by the opponent. In the latter case, the opponent's piece is captured by the move, ie taken off the board. Moving and capturing only goes one space at a time, you cannot skip any spaces.
  • You win by moving one of your pieces to the back row on the opposing side, or by capturing all of your opposing pieces.

properties

Since the pieces, unlike the pawns in chess, are allowed to move and capture on diagonally ahead squares, the two parties cannot block each other. A position cannot be repeated either, because the pieces can only move forward. A game can never end in a draw. This also limits the duration of a game, you can easily calculate that it cannot last longer than 178 moves on the 8x8 board (each side draws 89 times). This value is an upper bound .

strategy

A piece cannot be stopped by a single opposing piece. To defend you have to put up at least two figures, e.g. B. side by side or directly behind one another. The elementary attack method consists of attacking characters guarding multiple attack paths, so that they are distracted and a path to breakthrough (hence the name of the game) is opened.

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