Games - Abalone

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	Games - Abalone

Abalone is a two-player strategy board game which can be quaintly summarized as "sumo wrestling with marbles", as the objective is to push opposing marbles off the edge of the board. The rules can be mastered in a minute or two, and the flow of the game is fast-paced. Abalone tends to draw in new players much more quickly than complicated, slow games such as chess. Also, pushing the marbles is physically satisfying. The click-click-click as one's marbles push the enemy back is almost musical.

The board consists of 61 circles arranged in a hexagon five on a side. Each player has 14 marbles which rest in the circles, and are initially arrayed as shown at left.

The player with the black marbles moves first. For each move, a player moves a line of one, two, or three marbles one space, either inline (parallel to the line of marbles) or broadside (not parallel to the line of marbles), as illustrated at left.

When one player has numerical superiority in a line (three to two, three to one, or two to one) he or she may push the opposing marbles with an inline move. Broadside pushes are not allowed. The winner is the first player to push six opposing marbles off the edges of the board. The diagrams at left illustrate three Black pushes, before and after pushing.

The diagram at left illustrates three situations in which it is impossible for Black to push. In the top line Black does not have numerical superiority. In the middle line, Black has four marbles to three, but a maximum of three marbles may be moved each turn, so again no push is possible. In the bottom line Black cannot push because it is forbidden to dislodge one's own marbles.

The notation for recording moves gives the letters A-I to the horizontal lines, and the numbers 1-9 to northwest-southeast diagonals.

I O O O O O H O O O O O O G + + O O O + + F + + + + + + + + E + + + + + + + + + D + + + + + + + + 9 C + + @ @ @ + + 8 B @ @ @ @ @ @ 7 A @ @ @ @ @ 6 1 2 3 4 5

A popular notation: An inline move can be denoted by the movement of the trailing marble. Broadside moves can be denoted by the initial positions of the two extremities of the row followed by the final position of the first one (thus, with this notation, each broadside move has two notations possible, which could be avoided).

Here are some moves from a sample midgame. No marbles have yet been ejected in the first position.

Unfortunately, the dynamics of the basic game may have one serious flaw: it seems a good, conservative player can set up his or her marbles in a defensive wedge, and ward off all attacks indefinitely. An attacker may try to outflank this wedge, or lure it into traps, but such advances are often more dangerous to the attacker than the defender. Thus, from the starting position, it takes little skill and no imagination to avoid losing, and nothing in the rules prevents games from being interminable.

Because it is boring for games to be drawn out indefinitely, serious Abalone players tacitly agree to play aggressively. A player who forms a defensive wedge and makes no attempt to attack is therefore likely to be a novice who might lose anyway. Nevertheless, the possiblity of any competent player bringing the game to a standstill, and successfully avoiding losing to even a championship-calibre player, remains troubling.

There are several possible solutions to this conundrum. First, in tournaments, a judge may penalize a player for playing defensively. This solution is somewhat unsatisfactory, given that a judge may not always be present, and that "defensive play" is a subjective notion.

Second, several variations of the rules of play have been developed for the same board and marbles. Unfortunately, none of the variations has the same appealing simplicity of the original.

Third, and perhaps best, alternative starting positions have been designed to make the formation of stalemate wedges less likely. Experiments are still underway to find an opening position which neither devolves into a draw, nor gives too great an advantage to the first player. One popular attempt is the marguerite position, which is displayed on the left in its German version.

Abalone can also be played by three persons (or more) using the same board with fewer marbles each in three different colours.

Strategy Tips:

Always try and keep your marbles in a single group. Once you are split, it becomes very hard to defend OR attack. Conversely, be aware for divide and conquer opportunities to weaken your opponent!
Always think about the shape. Shape and cohesion are everything - if possible try to think of your group of marbles as jelly - able to deflect a pronged attack by sliding around the point of your opponent.
The most effective 'shape' to hold is a 3X3 rhomboid. This is the most powerful because it offers 3-marble attack/defence in most directions. The way to deal with it is to manipulate your marbles to chop the 'point' of your opponent's rhomboid off. This shape will use 9 marbles - use your others to manuevure the rhomboid around the board, always keeping the shape.
The most defensive formation is a trapezoid (this generally means the player is on the back foot)
A useful shape is the 'flower' - rather like the alternative starting positions shown above. One way of making this nigh on unassailable from all directions is by trapping an enemy marble in the centre of the flower - but of course, this reduces the strength of the attack, as only 2 marbles can be brought to bear on a tangent, rather than 3 in any direction if the flower is entirely one colour.
Never overextend an attack. You will quickly find yourself losing cohesion. Be patient! This holds all game until the last few moves when you are certain you can finish your opponent off. If you find yourself in this position - go for the jugular!
As you lose marbles near the edge, it makes sense to keep your strategy evolving around occupying the middle.

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Games - Abalone

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