Fanorona is the national board game of Madagascar, played on a 45 point board of 5 rows and 9 columns crossed by diagonals. Each player starts with 22 stones and captures by moving one step toward an enemy line or one step away from it, sweeping off every enemy stone that follows in that direction. Captures are compulsory and can be chained, so a single turn can clear a dozen stones and turn the game around.
How to Play Fanorona: Learn the Rules
Fanorona is the national board game of Madagascar, played on a 45 point board of 5 rows and 9 columns crossed by diagonals. Each player starts with 22 stones and captures by moving one step toward an enemy line or one step away from it, sweeping off every enemy stone that follows in that direction. Captures are compulsory and can be chained, so a single turn can clear a dozen stones and turn the game around.
Objective
The goal of Fanorona is to capture every one of your opponent's 22 stones. There are no promoted pieces and no territory to claim, so the whole game is a running battle over material. A player who is left with no stones, or who cannot move a single stone, loses. If neither side can force the win, the game is drawn.
Setup
The Fanoron-Tsivy board has 5 rows and 9 columns of intersections, 45 points in total, joined by horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. A point where 8 lines meet is a strong intersection and allows diagonal moves; a point where only 4 lines meet is a weak intersection and allows only horizontal and vertical moves. The corners and the centre are strong points, and strong and weak points alternate across the board. Each player fills the two rows nearest them with their 22 stones, then places the remaining four on the middle row, alternating with the opponent's stones from their own right hand side. The centre point is left empty. White moves first.
Gameplay
A stone moves one step along a line to an adjacent empty point. A move that captures nothing is called a paika move, and it is only allowed when no capture is available anywhere on the board, because capturing is compulsory. There are two ways to capture. A capture by approach moves your stone next to an enemy stone that lies straight ahead on the line you moved along. A capture by withdrawal moves your stone directly away from an enemy stone that was next to it. Either way you remove that stone and every enemy stone continuing in the same direction, stopping at the first empty point or friendly stone. If one step would capture both ahead and behind, you must choose a single direction. After a capture the same stone may continue capturing, but it may never move twice in a row in the same direction and may never return to a point it already stood on during that sequence. Unlike checkers, continuing a capture sequence is optional, so you may stop at any point and end your turn.
Winning
You win by capturing all of your opponent's stones, and you also win if your opponent still has stones but cannot move any of them. Because captures are compulsory, players are often forced into moves that expose their own lines, and a good sacrifice can pull an enemy stone out of position and open a devastating chain. When both sides are reduced to a handful of stones and neither can break through, the game is a draw, and repeating the same position three times is scored as a draw here.
Objective
The goal of Fanorona is to capture every one of your opponent's 22 stones. There are no promoted pieces and no territory to claim, so the whole game is a running battle over material. A player who is left with no stones, or who cannot move a single stone, loses. If neither side can force the win, the game is drawn.
Setup
The Fanoron-Tsivy board has 5 rows and 9 columns of intersections, 45 points in total, joined by horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. A point where 8 lines meet is a strong intersection and allows diagonal moves; a point where only 4 lines meet is a weak intersection and allows only horizontal and vertical moves. The corners and the centre are strong points, and strong and weak points alternate across the board. Each player fills the two rows nearest them with their 22 stones, then places the remaining four on the middle row, alternating with the opponent's stones from their own right hand side. The centre point is left empty. White moves first.
Gameplay
A stone moves one step along a line to an adjacent empty point. A move that captures nothing is called a paika move, and it is only allowed when no capture is available anywhere on the board, because capturing is compulsory. There are two ways to capture. A capture by approach moves your stone next to an enemy stone that lies straight ahead on the line you moved along. A capture by withdrawal moves your stone directly away from an enemy stone that was next to it. Either way you remove that stone and every enemy stone continuing in the same direction, stopping at the first empty point or friendly stone. If one step would capture both ahead and behind, you must choose a single direction. After a capture the same stone may continue capturing, but it may never move twice in a row in the same direction and may never return to a point it already stood on during that sequence. Unlike checkers, continuing a capture sequence is optional, so you may stop at any point and end your turn.
Winning
You win by capturing all of your opponent's stones, and you also win if your opponent still has stones but cannot move any of them. Because captures are compulsory, players are often forced into moves that expose their own lines, and a good sacrifice can pull an enemy stone out of position and open a devastating chain. When both sides are reduced to a handful of stones and neither can break through, the game is a draw, and repeating the same position three times is scored as a draw here.
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