CRISS CROSS

The game is played on a 8x8 board with the following setup:

 

TURN: On his turn a player must do one of two actions: Move a friendly stone, like a Chess Queen, to an empty cell, or Criss-cross two friendly stones in the same row or column, ie, swap their rows (columns) while staying in their columns (rows) if those two cells are empty GOAL: A player wins by placing their stones into a 8-queen puzzle solution, ie, no stone can move to a cell where is any other friendly stone.

An example   If Black is to move, he can win by criss-cross the two marked black stones, swapping them to the green dots.

The game was posted at r.g.a in May 19, 1998 by Bill Taylor:

Some postgrad students here just invented this new game - it looks good.

Played on a chessboard with 8 pawns (or checkers) of each color.

Starting position:-

X . . . . . . O
. X . . . . O .
. . X . . O . .
. . . X O . . .
. . . O X . . .
. . O . . X . .
. O . . . . X .
O . . . . . . X

The object is to be first to get your pawns into an 8-queen position;
i.e. so that no two are on the same row, column, or diagonal;
(intervening pawns of the opponent have no effect).
No square may ever have more than one pawn of any color.

Moves, which are compulsory, alternate as usual, and are as follows:

Two pawns may "criss-cross"; that is, take up the other corner positions of
their mutual rectangle; i.e. swap their rows while staying in their columns,
(or vice versa). Other pawns have no effect on the ability to criss-cross.

e.g. The first move might go to...

X . . . . . . O
. . . . . X O .
. . X . . O . .
. . . X O . . .
. . . O X . . .
. X O . . . . .
. O . . . . X .
O . . . . . . X

Looks like fun.