Abalone
Categories: Abstract Games Board Games New Games Events
About
The highly original abstract strategy game has become a huge success on the Continent. Abalone is a game where playing the game appeals to many of the senses. There is the normal visual imagery, but it is enhanced by the board, which is an elaborately crafted plastic hexagon and the pieces are marbles. Pieces are moved by pushing them which makes it very tactile and then there is a rhythmic clink as the marbles move into each other. The board game has already a modern classic.
Rules
The two player version of abalone is played with black starting. The start position used for tournament play is the Belgian daisy. This is where each sides 14 balls are arranged in a hexagon of 7 balls. The black hexagon is set-up in the left hand corner aligned next to it in the righht hand corner is a white hexagon (also called a daisy). The players take it in turns to move up to three of their balls at once. to move more than one piece they must all be touching in a line the pieces can either be pushed or a broadside move can be made. A broadside is where the whole line is moved sideways which requires all of the squares (holes) to be empty. When moving the pieces as a push (this is just 1 space at a time) if the line is blocked by fewer opponents balls this is known as sumito. If there are only one or two opponents' pieces then the move can be made as long as there is a free space at the end of the line. The edge of the board counts as a space and this how you take pieces. To win you need to eject 6 balls. There is no draw rule in the game but there are stalemate positions which is why the superior belgian opening is used over the classical start which was used in the earliest MSO tournaments.
You can find out about opportunities to play Abalone live at Timetable. Please report any external links that have broken or have changed to contain inappropriate material. More information about how tournament play works can be found in Using Clocks and MSO Rules.
MSO Abalone Champions
| Year | Name | Country | Flag | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Jan Stastna | Czech Republic |  |
Olympiad Champion |
| 2007 | Vincent Frochot | France |  |
Olympiad Champion |
| 2006 | Jan Stastna | Czech Republic | |
Olympiad Champion |
| 2005 | David Pearce | England |  |
Olympiad Champion |
| 2004 | Alex Borello | France | |
Olympiad Champion |
| 2003 | Stephane Nicolet | France | |
World Champion |
| 2002 | Jan Stastna | Czech Republic | |
World Champion |
| 2001 | Thomas Fenner | Germany |  |
World Champion |
| 2000 | Gert Schnider | Austria |  |
World Champion |
| 1999 | Gert Schnider | Austria | |
World Champion |
| 1998 | Vojtech Hrabal | Czech Republic | |
World Champion |
| 1997 | Marc Tastet | France | |
World Champion |
Full results and other winners can be found in Results.
MSO Abalone Ranked Players:
GRANDMASTER:
Gert Schnider
Jan Stastna
Marc Tastet
INTERNATIONAL MASTER:
David Pearce
CANDIDATE MASTER:
Joey Ho
Nico Habraken
External Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abalone_(board_game)
http://uk.abalonegames.com/play/