The Game of the Amazons

Alternate Names

El Juego de las Amazonas, Amazons

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

A 10x10 grid or 10x10 checker board; four each of black and white counters, called amazons; and a supply of markers (arrows) are required for play. The markers can be about anything, such as a matchstick or smaller counter, so long as there is a large supply of about eighty or ninety of them. They are not distinguished differently for each player.

History

El Juego de las Amazonas was invented in 1988 by Walter Zamkauskas of Argentina, and first published (in Spanish) in issue number 4 of the puzzle magazine El Acertijo in December of 1992. El Juego de las Amazonas (The Game of the Amazons) is a trademark of Ediciones de Mente. An approved English translation was written by Michael Keller and an article first appeared in the chess magazine NOST-Algia. Other game publications also published the rules, and the game gathered a small but devoted following. The Internet spread the game more widely, and it is considered by many aficionados to be one of the best and deepest abstract games.

Objective

The last player to be able to make a move wins. Draws are impossible.

Play

White moves first, and the players alternate moves thereafter. Each move consists of two parts: moving one of one's own amazons one or more empty squares in a straight line (orthogonally or diagonally), exactly as a queen moves in Orthochess; it may not cross or enter a square occupied by an amazon of either color or an arrow. After moving, the amazon shoots an arrow from its landing square to another square, using another queen-like move. This arrow may travel in any orthogonal or diagonal direction (even backwards along the same path the amazon just traveled, into or across the starting square if desired). An arrow, like an amazon, cannot cross or enter a square where another arrow has landed or an amazon of either color stands. The square where the arrow lands is marked to show that it can no longer be used.

Strategy

The strategy of the game is based on using arrows (as well as one's four amazons) to block the movement of the opponent's amazons and gradually wall off territory, trying to trap the opponents in smaller regions and gain larger areas for oneself. Each move reduces the available playing area, and eventually each amazon finds itself in a territory blocked off from all other amazons. The amazon can then move about its territory firing arrows until it no longer has any room to move. Since it would be tedious to actually play out all these moves, in practice the game usually ends when all of the amazons are in separate territories. The player with the largest amount of territory will be able to win, as the opponent will have to fill in her own territory more quickly.

Scores are sometimes used for tie-breaking purposes in Amazons tournaments. When scoring, it is important to note that although the number of moves remaining to a player is usually equal to the number of empty squares in the territories occupied by that player's amazons, it is nonetheless possible to have defective territories in which there are fewer moves left than there are empty squares. The simplest such territory is three squares of the same colour, not in a straight line, with the amazon in the middle (for example, a1+b2+c1 with the amazon at b2).

A complete game: white has won by a narrow margin. White controls 23 empty cells while Black controls 21.

Variations

Sources

1. Neto, Joāo Pedro and Jorge Nuno Silva. Mathematical Games, Abstract Games. Dover Publications, Inc. 2013. ISBN 978-0-486-49990-1