← Games Our Grandparents Played

Madagascar

Fanorona

Also called the Malagasy board game

Fanorona is played across Madagascar, on boards scratched into the ground or carved in wood, and has been recorded there since at least the 1600s.

It is often called the national game of Madagascar, and it is known for long chains of captures in a single turn.

The rules, briefly

• The board is a grid of five rows and nine columns of points, joined by lines and diagonals. Each player fills half the board, leaving only the centre point empty: twenty-two pieces each.
• Move a piece one step along a line to an empty point.
• Capture by approach (step towards an enemy piece in a line and remove that line of enemies) or by withdrawal (step away from one and remove the line behind you). You may keep capturing in the same turn, but not by moving the same way twice running or back to a point you have used.

Try this: Approach or withdraw

Before each capture, check both ways: stepping towards a line of enemy pieces and stepping away from one. Often one of them sets up a longer chain.

Play on AtlasTales (two players, one screen)

Read more: Fanorona on Wikipedia. Written from published sources; if your family plays it differently, write your rules down in Heirloom Rules, and if something here is wrong, tell us: hello@sparkanvil.org.