Amazon (game)

The game of the amazons was invented by the Argentinian Walter Zamkauskas in 1988; It is a game between two people, each one of whom has 4 pieces equal to each other called Amazons, differing from those of the opponent by color. The Amazons are placed on a board divided into 10 rows and 10 columns and the player who cannot make a move loses. It is classified as a board game, abstract and territorial; like go or reversi.

Rules

Initial position of the game

Two players, with four Amazons each, face each other on a 10x10 board. One player wears the white Amazons and the other the black (or other colors that differ). White starts positioned on the a4, d1, g1 and j4 squares, while Black is positioned on a7, d10, g10 and j7. Players make their moves in turns, beginning to move white.

A movement has two stages. In the first one, any of the Amazons is moved to a different square from the one it was in, following a diagonal or orthogonal direction, just like a chess queen moves. In the second stage, the amazon that has moved shoots an arrow, from the destination square, in a diagonal or orthogonal direction, to another square.

Amazons may not move into, move through, shoot arrows into, or shoot arrows through, squares hit by an arrow or occupied by another amazon.

The first player unable to make a move loses the game.

Territory and result of the game

This is a territorial game: after each movement the space on the board where they can move is reduced, until a situation is reached in which each Amazon is in an area of the board isolated from the rest of the Amazon. At that time the Amazons move in their territory shooting arrows until there is no space left in that area and they can no longer move.

Making all these final moves is somewhat tedious, so generally, at this point, the number of moves each player has left is counted and half a move is subtracted from the player whose turn it is to move. The winner is the player with the most moves left and the difference between the remaining moves of both players is the result of the game. This result is sometimes used as a tiebreaker in tournaments.

When counting the remaining movements, care must be taken, because although generally the number of these remaining movements is equal to the number of empty squares in the territories where the Amazons of each player are found, sometimes it is It is possible to have territories in which fewer moves remain than there are squares in them.

Sites to play on the Internet

There are few places where you can play Amazons. Among them we have the following:

• Little Golem, where tournaments and friendly games can be played under the 'shift' system (similar to play by email). The time limit is 10 days + 36 hours per move.
• igGameCenter, play in real time, support for iGoogle and Facebook..
• Richard's PBeM Server allows you to play via email.
• GGS Archived on 11 October 2003 at Wayback Machine. (Generic Game Server), allows you to play games in real time.
• Super Duper Games