Crossings (game)
{{Short description|Abstract strategy board game}}
{{no footnotes|date=January 2013}}
Crossings is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Robert Abbott. The rules were published in Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games. Crossings was the precursor to Epaminondas, which uses a larger board and expanded rules.
Gameplay
=Equipment=
- 1 8x8 gameboard
- 32 stones (16 of each color)
=Setup=
This is the starting position of Crossings.
=Object=
- Cross one stone to the opponent's end of the gameboard.
=Turns=
- Play alternates with each player making one movement on a turn.
- Red takes the first turn.
=Movement=
A group is a series of one or more same-colored stones adjacent to one another in a line (diagonal, horizontal, or vertical). A stone may belong to one or more groups.
- A player may move a single stone, an entire group, or a subgroup.
- A group consisting of a single stone may move one space diagonally or orthogonally into an empty square.
- A group must move along the line which defines it. It may move a number of spaces equal to the number of pieces in that group.
- When part of a group is moved (a subgroup), it must move along the line which defines it. It may move a number of spaces equal to the number of pieces in the subgroup.
- When a subgroup is moved it must involve one of the end stones.
- Pieces may not move onto an occupied square.
=Capturing an enemy stone=
- If the first stone in a moving group encounters a single enemy stone, the group's movement stops there, and the enemy stone is captured.
- If the first stone in a moving group encounters an end stone of an opponent's group, it can capture that stone if the opponent's group is smaller.
- If it cannot capture the end stone because the opponent's group is the same size or larger, it is not allowed to move on to that square.
=End of the game=
- A player possibly wins the game if they get a stone on the home row, or row furthest from their side. If the opponent cannot get a stone of their own onto the first player's home row in the next move, the first player wins. Otherwise, those stones are "locked"; they cannot be moved or captured. The next attempt at crossing, as this is called, will determine the winner (unless it, too, is immediately followed by a counter-crossing, and so on.)
- The game is a draw if no player can complete the objective. Draws are rare.
References
- {{cite book
|last=Sackson
|first=Sid
|author-link=Sid Sackson
|title=A Gamut of Games
|publisher=Pantheon Books
|year=1982
|orig-year=1st Pub. 1969, Random House, New York
|contribution=Crossings
|pages=46–51
|isbn=0-394-71115-7}}
- {{cite book
|last=Schmittberger
|first=R. Wayne
|title=New Rules for Classic Games
|publisher=John Wiley & Sons Inc
|year=1992
|contribution=Epaminondas and Crossings
|pages=[https://archive.org/details/newrulesforclass00rway/page/91 91–3]
|isbn=978-0471536215
|url-access=registration
|url=https://archive.org/details/newrulesforclass00rway/page/91
}}
Category:Board games introduced in 1969