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Kings and Pawns

John Reece wrote:
I was turning out the attic the other day and came across this game. I think it should be called Rooks and Pawns really. It is a proprietary game (Gamecraft 1979), and is played on a 7*8 board, the shorter sides facing each player.

Rules

The game is played by two players, that have one king and six pawns. The setup is as follows:

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PPPKPPP

Each turn, a player may either make a move with their king or they can move one or two pawns.

The king moves like a Rook from orthodox chess. Instead, the king may also swap places with a pawn that is horizontally or vertically adjacent to it.

A pawn moves one or two squares horizontally, vertically, or diagonally (i.e., like a Queen, but at most two squares.) When a player moves one pawn in a turn, this pawn still may move at most two squares.

Pieces cannot capture other pieces.

A player can win in two ways:

  1. By moving his king to one of the squares at the last row of the board, at the opponents side.
  2. By enclosing the king of the opponent. When you have at each of the squares that are adjacent to the king of the opponent, horizontally or vertically one of your pieces, then you win the game. E.g., when the opponent has his king at a3, and you have pieces of yourself at a2, a4 and b3, then you win.

Written by Hans Bodlaender, based on email of John Reece.
WWW page created: September 20, 1999.