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588:(Issue 13), Mike Siggins called the components "of good quality", and the rules "extremely concise." He found the game very replayable, and commented that "it has the potential to become a classic." His only complaint was that "as players become more proficient the game can slow up and stalemates often result." Despite this, Siggins gave the game an above-average rating of 8 out of 10, saying, "
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The board consists of 61 circular spaces arranged in a hexagon, five on a side. Each player has 14 marbles that rest in the spaces and are initially arranged as shown below, on the left image. The players take turns with the black marbles moving first. For each move, a player moves a straight line of
304:
The third, and perhaps best, alternative starting positions have been designed to make the formation of stalemate wedges less likely. Experiments are still underway to find an opening position which neither devolves to a draw nor gives too great an advantage to the first player. One popular attempt
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players tacitly agree to play aggressively. A player who forms a defensive wedge and makes no attempt to attack is likely to be a novice who might lose anyway. Nevertheless, there remains the possibility of any competent player bringing the game to a standstill and successfully avoiding losing, even
196:
A player can push their opponent's marbles (a "sumito") that are in a line to their own with an in-line move only. They can only push if the pushing line has more marbles than the pushed line (three can push one or two; two can push one). Marbles must be pushed to an empty space (i.e. not blocked by
285:
The dynamics of the basic game may have one serious flaw: it seems that a good but conservative player can set up their marbles in a defensive wedge and ward off all attacks indefinitely. An attacker may try to outflank this wedge or lure it into traps, but such advances are often more dangerous to
312:
Another option is to create a "turn limit" where if no marble has been knocked off the board by turn 15, whoever has made the most progress towards the center line wins. This encourages an aggressive strategy of moving forward and often the rule will not come into play.
297:
There are several possible "solutions". First, in tournaments, a judge may penalize a player for playing defensively. This solution is somewhat unsatisfactory, given that a judge may not always be present, and that "defensive play" is subjective.
441:(with a fixed marble in the centre of the board), which has been examined to some depth by Alex Borello and Nicolas Le Gal, uses a third color. Another possible variation involves either player winning the game by ejecting the central marble.
573:
In 1999, a number of top players from the Mind Sports
Olympiad signed an agreement to use a different starting position (the Belgian daisy) to revitalize the game. This has been used for top tournaments since then, including the AbaCup.
118:
designed by Michel Lalet and
Laurent Lévi in 1987. Players are represented by opposing black and white marbles on a hexagonal board with the objective of pushing six of the opponent's marbles off the edge of the board.
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One popular notation: an inline move can be denoted by the movement of the trailing marble (the "caboose"); broadside moves can be denoted by the initial positions of the two extremities of the
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I O O O O O H O O O O O O G + + O O O + + F + + + + + + + + E + + + + + + + + + D + + + + + + + + 9 C + + @ @ @ + + 8 B @ @ @ @ @ @ 7 A @ @ @ @ @ 6 1 2 3 4 5
286:
the attacker than the defender. Thus, from the starting position, it takes little skill and no imagination to avoid losing, and nothing in the rules prevents games from being interminable.
301:
Second, several variations of the rules have been developed for the same board and marbles. None of the variations has the same appealing simplicity of the original.
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followed by the final position of the first marble (with this notation, each broadside move has two notations possible, which could be avoided).
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Keep the marbles close together for increased defense and attack, especially in a hexagon shape to be able to push or defend in any direction.
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held in 2003 at the
International Computer Games Association (ICGA) events in Graz, Austria, the AbaPro program defeated the Nacre program.
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The notation for recording moves gives the letters A-I to the horizontal lines, and the numbers 1–9 to northwest–southeast diagonals.
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can be played by three or more people using the same board with fewer marbles for each player and each player has a different color.
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a marble) or off the board. The winner is the first player to push six of the opponent's marbles off of the edge of the board.
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was published in 1990 and has sold more than 4.5 million units. The year it was published it received one of the first
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699:
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Champion, Stephane
Nicolet is a two-time World Othello Championship finalist, and Jan Stastna is a strong Othello player.
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Gert
Schnider and Thomas Fenner participated in the evaluation and adjustment of AbaPro. Marc Tastet was the 1992 World
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Abalone playing program which won at the
International Computer Games Association (ICGA) tournament in Graz 2003.
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Pushing the opponent off the board is not usually a good idea if it leads to weaknesses in the player's geometry.
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A number of two-player variations use a third color for passive pieces. For example, the variation called
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Setting a "trap" by making a marble weak in one direction allows for opponent to weaken center defenses.
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one, two or three marbles of one color one space in one of six directions. The move can be either
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Keep the marbles close to the centre of the board and force the opponent to move to the edges.
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Proceedings of the 13th
Turkish Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks
309:
or Daisy positions, two versions of which are displayed in the center and to the right.
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38:
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744:"Implementing a Computer Player for Abalone using Alpha-Beta and Monte-Carlo Search"
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Special Issue on
Foundations of Information Processing of TELEMATIK, 1:4–6, 2002
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Because it is boring for games to be drawn out indefinitely, serious
403:. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.
257:. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.
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151:(serial in respect to the line of marbles), as illustrated below.
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is one of the best abstract games to appear in a long while."
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awards. It is currently sold in more than thirty countries.
829:
Ender Ozcan; Berk Hulagu (2004). "A Simple
Intelligent".
392:
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880:"International Computer Games Association Tournaments"
663:"Ludothèque de Boulogne-Billancourt: Primés en 1988"
478:
Person-to-person competitions have been held by the
93:
85:
77:
69:
61:
47:
37:
919:Siggins, Mike (February–March 1990). "Abalone".
855:"Mind Sports Olympiad: Full results for abalone"
444:A few variations use a second layer of marbles.
8:
722:"Constructing an Abalone Game-Playing Agent"
678:
676:
21:
838:
419:Learn how and when to remove this message
273:Learn how and when to remove this message
978:) is being considered for deletion. See
456:communities have found that, generally:
654:
905:"Oswin Aichholzer's homepage: Aba-Pro"
582:In the February–March 1990 edition of
20:
147:(parallel to the line of marbles) or
7:
627:, a series of games using hexagons
187:White counters with an in-line move
857:. boardability.com. Archived from
14:
982:to help reach a consensus. ›
175:Black opens with a broadside move
760:from the original on 2022-10-10.
709:from the original on 2022-10-10.
568:computer-to-computer competition
373:
365:Rule variations and more players
294:to a championship-level player.
227:
29:
720:N.P.P.M. Lemmens (2005-06-18).
1004:Board games introduced in 1987
1:
700:Graz University of Technology
742:Pascal Chorus (2009-06-29).
689:"Algorithmic Fun – Abalone"
399:the claims made and adding
253:the claims made and adding
1035:
43:Michel Lalet, Laurent Lévi
951:"Jeux & stratégie 54"
925:. No. 13. p. 8.
28:
980:templates for discussion
325:Black can defend forever
1014:Abstract strategy games
507:2003: Stephane Nicolet
357:
342:
327:
189:
177:
165:
145:broadside / arrow-like
56:Abstract strategy game
751:Maastricht University
729:Maastricht University
555:2019: Vincent Frochot
552:2018: Vincent Frochot
549:2017: Vincent Frochot
546:2016: Vincent Frochot
543:2015: Vincent Frochot
540:2014: Nicolas Fiorini
537:2013: David M. Pearce
534:2012: David M. Pearce
531:2011: Vincent Frochot
528:2010: Vincent Frochot
525:2009: David M. Pearce
519:2007: Vincent Frochot
513:2005: David M. Pearce
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335:
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185:
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1019:Mensa Select winners
937:"GAMES Magazine #98"
611:Jeux & Stratégie
489:1998: Vojtěch Hrabal
480:Mind Sports Olympiad
922:Games International
585:Games International
501:2001: Thomas Fenner
498:2000: Gert Schnider
149:in-line / in a line
25:
1009:French board games
683:Oswin Aichholzer;
510:2004: Alex Borello
384:possibly contains
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343:
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238:possibly contains
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81:10 minutes-2 hours
685:Franz Aurenhammer
522:2008: Jan Šťastna
516:2006: Jan Šťastna
504:2002: Jan Šťastna
486:1997: Marc Tastet
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386:original research
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355:starting position
340:starting position
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113:abstract strategy
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953:. December 1988.
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882:. Archived from
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807:. Archived from
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665:. Archived from
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163:Initial position
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111:is a two-player
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840:10.1.1.98.6805
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805:Abalone Online
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669:on 2012-03-23.
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219:Avoiding draws
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886:on 2014-09-22
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382:This section
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353:Belgian daisy
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236:This section
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201:Move notation
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73:20–60 seconds
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939:. June 1989.
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888:. Retrieved
884:the original
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863:. Retrieved
859:the original
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813:. Retrieved
809:the original
804:
795:
784:. Retrieved
780:the original
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766:
737:
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695:
667:the original
657:
625:GIPF project
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482:since 1997.
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338:German daisy
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127:Mensa Select
122:
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78:Playing time
22:
18:
968:‹ The
833:: 281–290.
65:2 (or more)
998:Categories
890:2015-09-21
865:2010-06-13
815:2016-05-09
786:2016-05-09
649:References
452:Forums of
439:The Pillar
393:improve it
307:Marguerite
247:improve it
116:board game
70:Setup time
52:Board game
835:CiteSeerX
578:Reception
474:Champions
397:verifying
251:verifying
100:, tactics
39:Designers
970:template
755:Archived
704:Archived
619:See also
448:Strategy
409:May 2009
305:are the
263:May 2009
133:Gameplay
98:Strategy
985:Abalone
972:below (
596:Reviews
590:Abalone
561:Othello
454:Abalone
432:Abalone
391:Please
291:Abalone
245:Please
123:Abalone
108:Abalone
62:Players
23:Abalone
989:Curlie
975:Curlie
837:
492:1999:
94:Skills
86:Chance
48:Genres
758:(PDF)
747:(PDF)
725:(PDF)
707:(PDF)
692:(PDF)
641:YINSH
636:ZÈRTZ
631:DVONN
603:Games
566:In a
213:lance
138:Rules
89:None
987:at
614:#54
606:#98
395:by
249:by
1000::
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675:^
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
