Fianco

Opening Position

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

A 9x9 square grid and fifteen each of black and white counters are required for play. Alternatively, the game could be played with same setup and same number of counters playing at the intersections of an 8x8 square grid.

History

Fianco was invented by the Dutch games inventor and musician Fred Horn and copyrighted in 1987.

Objective

A player wins when they place one of their counters at any position on the last row (their opponent's home row).

Play

The game commences with the board setup as above. Alternate turns entail the orthogonal movement of one single friendly counter either forwards or sideways to an adjacent vacant cell; or a player may jump and capture an opposing counter. Unlike movement which is orthogonal, jump and capture moves are diagonal, but they may only be made by jumping diagonally forwards, toward the end (goal) row. A counter may only jump over an opposing counter, thereby capturing it, and landing at a vacant cell just beyond the captured counter in a diagonal line. Capture is compulsory, but captures are not enchained and only one opposing counter may be captured per turn.

Sources