Custodianship

Custodianship

Custodianship, occasionally called sandwiching, in board games refers to the capture or conversion of an opposing counter by surrounding it with friendly counters, usually two on opposite sides. It is common in ancient board games but is uncommon in modern games. Most likely, older board games utilizing custodianship were gradually replaced by the newer method of capturing opposing counters by jumping over them. The game will specify if the custodianship capture is orthogonal, diagonal, or both. Some games will allow for custodianship capture by landing a single friendly counter next to an opposing counter, thereby capturing it. This is Single Custodianship is practically identical to a method of capture known as Approach from the game Fanorona from Madagascar. Fanorona also utilizes Withdrawal to capture opposing counters. Withdrawal is effectively the exact opposite of Approach. Here, a player captures all opposing counters in a row by moving a friendly counter, also in that row at any uninterrupted distance apart from them, along the row in a direction away from the opposing counter or group. Capture by Approach and Withdrawal are unique to Fanorona.

Custodianship at the Corners and L-Shaped Custodianship

Custodianship capture of an opposing counter at the corner positions of a square grid presents a unique problem as a counter here could not be captured by the normal method. Some games utilizing custodianship will allow a counter to be captured at the corners if two opposing counters are at the two positions orthogonally adjacent to the corner or at the three positions orthogonally and diagonally adjacent to the corner. Other games, such as Gundru from Tibet, extend on this concept and allow for this L-Shaped Custodianship Capture at any position on the board, not just the corners. Utilizing this, if a row of counters comes to be at the middle of an L-formation with opposing counters at both ends of the L, they will become captured.

Multiple Capture Custodianship

Some games allow multiple opposing counters to be captured in one turn, provided they are all adjacent in an orthogonal or diagonal row. This should not be confused with Multiple Capturer Custodianship, which may be better called Multiple Captors Custodianship.

Multiple Captors Custodianship (Multiple Capturers Custodianship)

Some games will utilize Multiple Captors Custodianship where a counter must become surrounded on three or more sides by opposing counters in order to be captured. Triple Captors Custodianship on a triangular grid is utilized in the game of Bizingo. Quadruple captor custodianship is utilized to capture the King in some reconstructions of games of the Tafl family. Quadruple custodianship could be seen as a continuation of the concept of enclosure used in Go and other games of placement.