Game 128: Abalone


Well, one thing about this venture is that it gets us playing games we haven't played in years.  I think we've had Abalone since the late 1980s.  We used to play it quite a bit.  I always liked it for its simple elegance - simple design, simple rules, but complex possibilities.  Those are elements that are always a draw for me.  This is a game of pure strategy.  I'm the one that suggested we play tonight and the one that suggested this particular game, but I probably should have waited for a night on which I was not so tired!  Anyway, below is the initial set-up.  You're allowed to push one, two or three marbles one space (forward, backward, or to the side).  The goal is to knock off all the other player's pieces before all of yours are knocked off.*  (At some point in time we lost one of our black marbles, and this was in the days before the Internet, so we didn't have an easy way to replace it; thankfully we found a dark green marble of exactly the right size in our house somewhere, and it works just fine.)
At first it seemed we were going to keep our pieces very clumped together, but I decided to just try a crazy move, splitting my pieces (the black ones) a bit just to get things moving, and that proved to be a fatal error.  (As a mathematician I should know better and do better, but I was seriously tired and just wanted to keep it moving!)
Despite the fact that it seemed obvious to me that David had an insurmountable advantage, he took his time with each move - thinking about everything carefully, as is his wont.

Though it was years ago that we'd last played, I to remember this game being quite competitive, but through my tiredness and impulsiveness tonight I gave him an opening to the middle ground, and he took full advantage - snaking right through my pieces.
I was getting really worried that he would push off all my pieces before I even got a single one of his!  With each piece lost I was at more and more of a disadvantage.
But I was finally able to get one!

In fact I got a couple more before I was crushed entirely.
Obviously I must play this game again - and take it more seriously when I do!

*Correction: You only need to knock of 6 of your opponents marbles to win; you do not have to knock them all off.  Whew!  That will make it less painful!


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