Alpha Centauri

By Roberto Lavieri

Introduction

Alpha Centauri is a very complex game, somewhat exotic, with some elements from Chess, Rococo, and Terrace, but with a few new ideas that make this game unique.

Board and Setup

The Board is 9x9, with squares colored yellow, brown and blue. There is a Central Square formed by 9 squares, the "Encounter Zone". The object of the game is to move your King and your Dame to adjacent squares in the Encounter Zone. The King and the Dame are uncapturable pieces, and you can't move any piece to a square where the opposite King or Dame are directly attacked by your piece (there is no check in this game). Initially Kings and Dame are set up in the enemy zone, surrounded by enemy pieces (they are in some manner "prisoner" pieces). You need to liberate them so they can reach the Encounter Zone and finish together on adjacent squares.

Almost all the pieces have similar basic movements (with a few exceptions):

1.- Orthogonal movement of only one square ("O" movement).

2.- Change of horizontal rank, moving from one colored horizontal line of squares to the immediately following or the immediately preceding parallel line of squares of the same color ("CH" movement). This is, in most of cases (some exceptions apply for a few pieces), a non-capturing move, and the piece can go to any position in the new line.

3.- Moving over the horizontal line, with a FIDE-Rook movement ("H" movement).

Pieces

P		A Pawn moves with O and H movements. It captures by replacement moving diagonally one position.
G		A Guard moves and captures with O movement, but it can move and capture to adjacent diagonal squares. (The movement and mode of capturing is like FIDE King.)
H		The Hopper moves with O, H and CH movements, but captures hopping over a piece, and for capturing purposes the Hopper can move diagonally too, as we are going to explain. If there is an enemy piece adjacent (orthogonally or diagonally), or if the enemy piece is on one of the next parallel lines of squares of the same color and on the same orthogonal rank without any pieces between them, the Hopper can jump over the piece and capture it, if the landing square is free or occupied by a friendly piece. (Hoppers can sacrifice friendly pieces in a capturing movement). A similar jumping movement for capture applies with the H movement, jumping over an enemy piece on the horizontal line if there are no pieces between them, and it can capture a friendly piece in the landing square if necessary. Hopper can't capture with the CH movement. Possible non-capturing movements (dark lines). (E) is an enemy piece. In the graphic, capturable enemy ($) is captured if the landing square (x) is free or occupied by a friendly piece.
C		A Centaur moves with O, H and CH movements, and it can capture with the three types of movements. If there are enemy pieces in the two orthogonally adjacent squares to the landing square (not in the same file or rank, i.e., one in a square adjacent in the same rank and one adjacent in the same file), and there is not another piece orthogonally adjacent, both enemy pieces are captured after O or H movement. If there are three enemy pieces orthogonally adjacent to the landing square, the Centaur can't capture any of them. If there is only one capturable enemy piece orthogonally adjacent and a non-capturable piece orthogonally adjacent but not in the same file or rank, only the capturable piece is captured. If there is an enemy piece orthogonally adjacent and exactly one friendly piece orthogonally adjacent in the same conditions explained before, the Centaur has the option of capturing both pieces, the friendly piece and the enemy piece. The Centaur is the only piece that can capture with the CH movement. A Centaur is immune to the Reducer. Possible non-capturing moves. (E) is a piece. The upper capturable enemies (white $) are captured after the adjacent movement. The right pieces, one enemy (white $) and one friendly (dark $), may be captured. With the left movement on the horizontal, nothing can be captured.
A		An Advancer also moves with O, H and CH movements. When moving with O or H movement, it captures a piece adjacent to the landing square in the same direction of movement. When moving with the CH it can't capture. After landing on (x), enemy capturable pieces (white $) are captured. Black lines mark the other possible non-capturing moves. (White E) is a piece.
W		A Withdrawer moves with O, H and CH movements. When moving with O or H movement, it captures a piece adjacent to the starting position in the opposite direction of movement. It can't capture with the CH movement. Moving on (x), enemy capturable piece ($) is captured. Moving on (y), enemy capturable piece (%) is captured.
Rt		A Rotor moves with O, H and CH movements. It can't capture any piece. Instead of this, it has another "stationary" ability: if the Rotor is on a square that is not along the edges (edges: files 1 or 9, ranks a or i), it can rotate all the surrounding pieces one, two, three, four, five, six or seven positions. Rotors are uncapturable pieces. A Rotor can't rotate surrounding pieces if there is another uncapturable piece adjacent (Rotor, King or Dame, friend or enemy). If there is a Reducer attacking a Rotor, the Rotor can still rotate surrounding pieces, but can only move away from or towards the Reducer on the orthogonal line of attack between them.
Rd		A Reducer moves with O, H and CH movements. It can't capture any piece. Instead of this, it has the ability of reduce the movement and capture abilities of an orthogonally attacked enemy piece. An enemy piece in direct orthogonal line with a Reducer with no pieces between, can only move or capture in the orthogonal line that it has in common with the Reducer, moving (with the piece movement allowed in that line) in the opposite direction or towards the Reducer in the same line.
K D		The King is one of the two royal pieces in the game. A King can't be captured. A King can't be attacked for capturing. There is no "check" in this game. (You can't move any piece to a square where the moving piece or another piece can capture the King. But the King may be affected by the Reducer. You can move a Rotor adjacent to the enemy King, but you can't rotate it). The King moves only one step in orthogonal movement, and the King can capture enemy pieces with it's movement. It is permissible for another King or Dame to move to a square orthogonally adjacent to the King. Royal pieces can't attack or capture Royal pieces.. The Dame is the another Royal piece. The Dame moves like the King, one step orthogonally, and can't be captured. The capturing abilities of the Dame are identical to the King's abilities.

Rules

Win condition: the King and Dame are on adjacent squares in the Encounter Zone.

Two moves per turn, per player, are required. One move of one uncapturable piece (Rotor, King or Dame), followed by a move of one capturable piece. If the first move is not possible, the player must make the second move, the move of a capturable piece.

Playing Tips

Alpha Centauri has an enjoyable playability, but strategy is not trivial. Alpha Centauri really is a very complex game. You must try to open lines of movement for your King and Dame. For this purpose, in advanced stages of the game, deep positional tactics and sacrifices may be frequent. I have played some test games of Alpha Centauri on a wood board. Honestly, I will need an undetermined amount of time to play this game a bit better; Alpha Centauri´s game philosophy seems to be dramatically different from that of any other Chess-type games I have ever played.

Computer Play

There is currently no computer program for playing Alpha Centauri, although it is highly desirable. If you are encouraged to try, I'll be pleased with you, or we can work together in a project for a not-so-easy to implement Zillions ZRF. Welcome!

Comments

Alpha Centauri. A very complex game, somewhat exotic, with some elements from Rococo. (9x9, Cells: 81)

George Duke wrote on Tue, Sep 27, 2016 04:57 PM EDT:Good ★★★★

Italian mathematician Roberto Lavieri moved to South America and became Venezuelan. Alpha Centauri lacks the clarity the later Altair brought to the Horizontal rank movement of both games.

💡📝Roberto Lavieri wrote on Mon, Jan 24, 2005 06:18 PM EST:

Yes, the Rotor must be substituted by another piece, but I have thought about the game, and it should be good re-define the entire set of pieces, because it is very possible that this game works better with weaker pieces, making it much more strategic, due the fact that the objective of the game is, in essence, of run instead of checkmate. If you are interested in the basic concept of the game, I invite you to think on an alternative, playable game based in Alpha Centauri concepts, it is going to be, necessarily, an entirely different game, regardless the basic ideas, because Alpha Centauri was an interesting exotic idea though as a whole, but unfortunately, it crashed once tested in vitro.

George Duke wrote on Mon, Jan 24, 2005 04:06 PM EST:

How do you rotate anyway? Orthogonally, or diagonally, or a combination? Why not just drop the Rotor and put in a Falcon, or a Mage, or a Cannon/Canon? --in order to make it a playable game like Altair. Actually, Rotor does as a piece very much what Fourriere's Pocket Polypiece does continuously for the entire game.

💡📝Roberto Lavieri wrote on Mon, Jan 24, 2005 03:22 PM EST:

No, George, Alpha Centauri is almost unplayable by humans. I tested it physically, and I was sadly surprised with the difficulty of the game. One of the bigger problems is the Rotor, this piece can´t be used in a good manner, it changes drastically the game each time it moves, and usually improves the position of some pieces and destroys consolidated good positions of other ones. The deepness of the game is extreme, and you can´t see nothing, making the game almost exclusively tactical, but very difficult to play. The basic idea of the game can, perhaps, be adapted for a new easier variant, but the project Alpha Centaury was, definitely, rejected by myself.

George Duke wrote on Mon, Jan 24, 2005 02:09 PM EST:

Since Lavieri's Altair turned out to be a superlative game, to my surprise beyond Excellent, Alpha Centauri probably is too. Further a priori evidence for that is Maxima's being Excellent, as everyone knows. Ten types of pieces on 81 squares is within the realm of playability. The coloured board facilitates 'Change' and 'Horizontal' movements, too technical to explain in one sentence. Read the rules. Alpha Centauri's Change and Horizontal are obviously works-in-progress towards Altair, having those same features.

Number of ratings: 2, Average rating: Good, Number of comments: 7