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Abalone: the rules

The best way to play Abalone is against another human being. But when there is nobody around, you can use the computer as your opponent. It shouldn't be hard to beat this WWW-version. That's because it's not trying very hard. This way it doesn't eat too much computer resources.

Object of the game

Abalone is played on a hexagonal board. Each player has 14 marbles.

The object of the game is to eject six of the opponent's marbles from the board. Players move in turn, black begins.


Moving your marbles

At his turn a player may move 1, 2 or 3 of his marbles in any of the six possible directions, provided there is an adjacent free space.


  • Not more than three marbles of the same colour may be moved in a single manoeuvre.
  • A move may not be for more than one space at a time.
  • When moving 2 or 3 marbles, they must all be moved into the same direction.

    • Note: the original Abalone-rules allow moving the marbles in two ways:

    • In-line: forwards or backwards on the same line where the marbles lay.
    • Broadside: the marbles move in a diagonal line.

    Because todays browsers have a limited interaction with a document, this WWW-Abalone only supports moving marbles "In-line". Maybe one day we create a HotJava version.

    note: hmmmm... i wrote this many years ago....

"SUMITO": push your opponent

In order to push your opponent's marbles, a Sumito must be set up. This means that your marbles are numerical superior to your opponent's marbles.


In the picture the three positions of superiority are shown:

  • "2 push 1 Sumito"
  • "3 push 2 Sumito"
  • "3 push 1 Sumito"

Opponent's marbles may only be pushed "in-line", when in contact and then only provided there is a free space behind the marble(s) in the defensive position.

A player is never obliged to push.

Some illegal moves

In the picture some illegal moves are shown.

  • Move [a] and [b] are illegal since there is no Sumito. Or: you are not superior to your opponent.
  • Move [c] is illegal since it isn't allowed to move 4 marbles at once.
  • [d] shows a situation were there is no free space behind the white marbles. So pushing white isn't possible.

Ejection

A marble is ejected when it's pushed off the board. The number of ejected balls are shown on both sides of the board.
If you eject six of the opponent's marbles, you win the game.


Playing this WWW version

When it's your turn, your marbles are divided into 6 segments. These segments match the 6 possible directions in which you can move the marbles. So by clicking on a segment, you push the marble into that direction. The picture below shows the segment on which you should click to move the white marble with your three black marbles.


The balls that were moved during the last turn of you or the computer, are marked with a orange border. An arrow indicates the direction in which the balls where moved.


This WWW version also allows you to undo a move. Just use the BACK-button of your browser.

You can also save a game and continue later, by putting the game into your hotlist. Returning to the game will restore the game.

History

Several years ago I was addicted to Abalone. Although I preferred the board-version of this game, I created a computer-version. There was an AtariST and an OpenWindows version. I decided to put the Atari-version on the net. Nothing happened since. Probably nobody ever noticed it :-(
Now I'm addicted to the Web, so I created a WWW-version of the game.