Help For Fanorona,
"The National Game of Madagascar"

Welcome to the network Fanorona server. The rules for Fanorona are below. The fanorona challenge command has no special options, and the move notation is described in the rules. Other commands are the same for all games. Send "help commands" for help on commands which are used by all games.

There is one additional command for Fanorona:

fanorona set userid password [options]

These are the available options:

flip : Rotate the board if you are playing White (default)
noflip : White is always on the bottom

Rules

Board and Setup

Fanorona is played on the intersections of a 9x5 grid with 10 diagonals drawn in. Pieces may only move along the lines on the board.

     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i  

                                           
 5   *---+---*---+---*---+---*---+---*   5 
     |\  |  /|\  |  /|\  |  /|\  |  /|     
     | \ | / | \ | / | \ | / | \ | / |       Black (b)
     |  \|/  |  \|/  |  \|/  |  \|/  |     
 4   +---*---+---*---+---*---+---*---+   4 
     |  /|\  |  /|\  |  /|\  |  /|\  |     
     | / | \ | / | \ | / | \ | / | \ |     
     |/  |  \|/  |  \|/  |  \|/  |  \|     
 3   *---+---*---+---*---+---*---+---*   3 
     |\  |  /|\  |  /|\  |  /|\  |  /|     
     | \ | / | \ | / | \ | / | \ | / |     
     |  \|/  |  \|/  |  \|/  |  \|/  |     
 2   +---*---+---*---+---*---+---*---+   2 
     |  /|\  |  /|\  |  /|\  |  /|\  |     
     | / | \ | / | \ | / | \ | / | \ |       White (a)
     |/  |  \|/  |  \|/  |  \|/  |  \|     
 1   *---+---*---+---*---+---*---+---*   1 

                                           
     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i  

Each player starts with 22 pieces on the board in the following setup:

     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i  

    ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ###    
 5  ###-###-###-###-###-###-###-###-###  5 
    ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ###    
     | \ | / | \ | / | \ | / | \ | / |       Black (Black)
    ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ###    
 4  ###-###-###-###-###-###-###-###-###  4 
    ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ###    
     | / | \ | / | \ | / | \ | / | \ |     
    ### OOO ### OOO \|/ ### OOO ### OOO    
 3  ###-OOO-###-OOO--*--###-OOO-###-OOO  3 
    ### OOO ### OOO /|\ ### OOO ### OOO    
     | \ | / | \ | / | \ | / | \ | / |     
    OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO    
 2  OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO  2 
    OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO    
     | / | \ | / | \ | / | \ | / | \ |       White (White)
    OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO    
 1  OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO  1 
    OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO OOO    

     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i  

The object of the game is to capture all of the opponent's pieces. If both sides have pieces left but neither can force any further captures, the players may agree to a draw.

Moving and Capturing

Each move consists of sliding a piece along one of the lines on the board to an adjacent intersection. The destination intersection must be empty.

Captures occur on moves in one of two ways, either by approach or by withdrawal. A piece captures by approach if the intersection next to the destination in the direction of movement is occupied by an enemy piece. A piece captures by withdrawal if the intersection next to the source opposite the direction of movement is occupied by an enemy piece. In both cases, all contiguous enemy pieces along the line of movement are captured. A piece may only capture in one direction; if it could capture both ways, the player must choose which.

In the following diagram, the black piece may capture h and i by approach, or c, d, and e by withdrawal (but not both). The white piece on a1 is not captured by withdrawal because it is not contiguous with the others.

    OOO     OOO OOO OOO ###     OOO OOO    
 1  OOO--+--OOO-OOO-OOO-###--+--OOO-OOO  1 
    OOO     OOO OOO OOO ###     OOO OOO    

     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i  

In this diagram, the black piece at f has no captures available. It may not capture by approach because there is no piece at h, and it may not capture by withdrawal because e is not an enemy piece.

    OOO     OOO OOO ### ###         OOO    
 1  OOO--+--OOO-OOO-###-###--+---+--OOO  1 
    OOO     OOO OOO ### ###         OOO    

     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h   i  

Turns

On a player's turn, he must move one of his pieces. He must capture pieces if he can do so, otherwise he simply moves a single piece and his turn is over. After making a capture, a player may make additional captures with the same piece as long as he is able. Additional captures are optional and he may stop at any time. A piece making additional captures must change direction with each movement and may not revisit any intersections it occupied earlier that turn.

Fanorona Move Notation

Movements are specified using algebraic notation, with a + or - after the move to indicate capturing by approach or withdrawal. Movements may be separated by a non-alphanumeric character such as a comma or semicolon.

The server will allow the player to specify each movement during a turn in separate commands or all together. Because of this, if you choose to end your turn when you could have made additional captures, you must send one of the strings "stop", "end", "done", or "pass" to end your turn.

Some examples of acceptable notations follow.

Non-capturing:

a1a2
a1-a2

Single capturing move:

a1a2+
a2-a2+
a1,a2+

Multiple capturing moves:

a1a2+,b2+,b3-
a1a2+;a2b2+;b2b3-
a1-a2+b2+b3-

Second movement command in a turn:

a2b2+
b2+
b2+;b3-

Ending a turn without making all possible captures:

done
b2+,end
a1a2+b2+stop