Breakthrough (board game)

Breakthrough is an abstract strategy board game invented by Dan Troyka in 2000 and soon after published by Zillions (http://www.zillions.org/). At this time it was played on a 7x7 board. It won the 2001 8x8 Game Design Competition , even though the game is trivially extendable to larger board sizes. It has some similarity to checkers, but the strategy is completely different.

Rules

The board is initially set up as follows, with number signs representing black pieces, zeroes representing white pieces, and periods representing empty squares:

########
########
........
........
........
........
00000000
00000000

To play the game on a different-sized board, just fill the front two and back two rows with pieces; the board need not be square.

Choose a player to go first; play then alternates, with each player moving one piece per turn.

The rules are as follows:

• A piece may move one space straight or diagonally forward if the target square is empty. For example:

.....
..#..
.abc.
.....

The black piece can move into the squares marked a, b, and c.

• A piece may move into a square containing an opponent's piece if and only if that square is one space diagonally forward. The opponent's piece is removed and the player's piece replaces it. For example:

.....
..#..
.AbC.
.....

If White had pieces in the squares marked A, b, and C, the black piece could capture either A or C; it would replace them if it chose to capture. Note that capturing is not compulsory, nor is it "chained" as in Checkers.

The first player to reach the opponent's home row — the one farthest from the player — is the winner.

References

Handscomb, Kerry. "8x8 Game Design Competition: The Winning Game: Breakthrough ...and two other favorites." Abstract Games Magazine, Issue 7, Autumn 2001. "Breakthrough." http://www.gamerz.net/~pbmserv/breakthrough.html

See also

Breakthrough can be played by email, using Richard Rognlie's Play-By-eMail Server.