Fanorona

How to play Fanorona?

Fanorona is a well-established strategy game that has been played for centuries and is considered the national game of Madagascar. On a 9x5 (45 dots) board, each player starts with 22 tiles. When he moves his piece to an empty adjacent spot, this move creates a straight line — if there are opposing pieces AHEAD of the line ("approach") or BEHIND ("withdrawal") of the point left by the piece, all consecutive opposing pieces in that direction are defeated in one move! You can continue chain eating with the same stone by changing direction.

1. The board is a 45-dot grid of 9 columns x 5 rows. Some dots (those with even row+column sum) are also connected diagonally, others are only horizontal/vertical.
2. Each player starts with 22 tiles lined up on their own half of the board, leaving 1 spot in the middle empty.
3. You can move your piece to an empty adjacent point along a line it is connected to (this is a "walk" move).
4. DEATH: If there is an opponent's piece AHEAD of the line you moved ("approach") or just BEHIND the point you left ("withdraw"), ALL consecutive opponent's pieces in that direction (up to the gap/edge/own piece) are defeated in one move.
5. You MUST eat — if you have an eating lunge, you cannot do a walking lunge.
6. After eating with a stone, you can continue chain-eating with that stone (you can stop it by saying "Finish" if you wish), provided that you do not visit the same spot again and do not use the same direction repeatedly.
7. You win if you capture all your opponent's pieces or if the opponent cannot make any moves.

Fanorona strategy tips

• A move approaching or moving away from a long line of opponents can gain many pieces at once.
• "Strong" spots with diagonal lines allow eating from more directions.
• While chain-eating, you cannot go in the same direction twice or return to the same point; plan the chain accordingly.

Fanorona history

Fanorona is a traditional strategy game that is considered the national game of Madagascar. Each player has 22 tiles on a 9x5 dotted board and the game starts with an almost full board.

It is known for its unique eating rule: a piece eats all consecutive opponent pieces on that line in one move by either "approaching" or "moving away" from the opponent in the direction it is moving.

Other names: Fanorona game, madagascar checkers