ABALONE 

Copyright (c) 1987 Michel Lalet, Laurent Levi, Abalone Games

Abalone is played on a 5x5 hexagonal board with 14 stones for each player.

 

LINE SHIFT - A player can shift 1, 2 or 3 connected marbles on a line, one cell on one of the 2 directions, provided it is empty. SIDE SHIFT - A player can also shift 2 or 3 connected stones on one of the 6 directions, provided that all adjacent cells on the chosen direction, are empty. PUSH - A line of 2 or 3 stones can push stone opponent stones, using a line shift: The pushed line must be smaller that the pushing line If exists, the cell after the pushed line must be empty. If there is no cell after the pushed line, the last stone is removed from the board GOAL - Wins the player that removes 6 opponent stones from the board

 

An example Stones e2-f2 can line shift to cell [1]. Stones e3-f4-g5 can side shift to cells [2]. Stones b3-c3 can push (2 vs. 1) and remove stone a3. Stones c5-c6-c7 can push (3 vs. 2) stones c3-c4.

At Abalone Online there were a lots of information about the game, the site is now defunct but can be seen here.

One of these variants is Abafoot. Wins the player that pushes the neutral stone off-board.

Since the game turned out to be too drawish, the top Abalone players proposed a new rule change which is based on a new setup alled Daisy:

Their words:

We, signed below, propose to change the starting position for Abalone tournament MSO2000 to: 

       W W . B B
   W W W B B B
  . W W . B B .
 . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
 . . . . . . . .
  . B B . W W .
   B B B W W W
    B B . W W

The exact rule should state: 

GAME STARTS FROM THE NEW POSITION. IF BOTH PLAYERS AGREE THEY WILL BE PERMITTED TO START FROM THE CLASSICAL POSITION. 

This is to allow smooth change for the new position. This year we played with the new position only if both players agreed. This change can be supported with these arguments: 

1) Original position is easy to block (i.e. both players reach the blocking position and then repeat moves). 

2) Even worse: if only one player wants to block (usually white because of his disadvantage at the beginning) it is very hard for his opponent to unblock the position and it needs very expertise play and sacrifice of some balls i.e. It could happen in Grandmaster v. Average player. 

3) In the new position, it's very hard to block and impossible to force a blocking position if the opponent doesn't want to. It's also difficult to reach the centre and make a stable group here. The game is interesting from the very beginning and it's very dynamic. The only thing that was disadvantageous: some player felt that the new position is too "new" for them and they want to be more sure, because the tournament is important for them. This only means that if our proposal is used next year, it should be noted in the information distributed several months before MSO (via Internet for example). 

4) We consider ourselves good Abalone players, so we think our opinion has some weight. 

Jakub Aragorn TESINSKY [signed] 
Gert SCHINDER [signed] 
Vojtech HRABAL (W. Ch. 1998) [signed] 
Miroslav VORACEK [signed] 
Gianni COTTOGNI [signed] 
Elie CALI [signed] 
Ian TURNER [signed] 
Bintsa ANDRIANI [signed] 
Marc TASTET [signed] 
Stephane NICOLET [signed]

A variant called DROP ABALONE starts in an empty board, and players may drop (instead of move) a friendly stone on an empty cell (all stones start off-board in each player's reserve). Here's a sample game:

[14 stones each, 7 stones to win]

 1. e5         c4
 2. d5         b3
 3. e6         c2
 4. d4         f5
 5. c3         f6
 6. e4         g6
 7. d6         g7
 8. f7         f5f6-f7
 9. c6         h6
10. d3         h8
11. c3         f6f7-f8
12. f6         f7f8:f9
13. c6f6-g6    f7
14. d5e6-g8    h7
15. c3f6-g7    h8-i8
16. c6f6-g6    i8h7-g6
17. d3f5-g6    f8f9-e7e8
18. e4g6-h7:i8 hi6-gh5
19. f5g7-i8:i8 g8-f8
20. f7h7-e7    resigns

1-0

Final Position:
       . . . . .      1
      . . X . . .     2
     . X . . . . .    3
    . . X O . . . .   4
   . . O . O . X X .  5
  / . . O O O O . .   6
 a   . X O O O . .    7
  b / . X X . . O     8
   c   . . . . X      9
    d /   /   /    
     e f g h i    
                  
Captures:            XXX – 2, OOO - 1
Pieces left to drop: XXX – 1, OOO – 3

Check also a modern variant, with Abalone movements: Abanondas.

BallTriX is a Abalone variant where the goal is to push-off a neutral stone, the ball.