Latest Changes: (Last modified Sep 11, 2021)

Historic archive: NOST articles by Ralph Betza on LOA strategy

How to Play

Equipment: An ordinary checkerboard is all that's needed.  Initial Setup: in the standard version of the game, the black checkers are placed in two rows along the top and bottom of the board, while the white stones are placed in two rows at the left and right of the board.  the Object of the Game: is to move your pieces until they are all in one connected group. Diagonals are considered to be connected.

The Rules of the game

Here is a typical board position, with the legal moves for one of the black stones marked. If you are using a Java enabled browser, this diagram is a real board! You can click on any piece to see its legal moves. Click at the end of any move arrow to move there.

Black moves first  Each turn, the player to move moves one of his pieces, in a straight line, exactly as many squares as there are pieces of either color anywhere along the line of movement. (These are the Lines of Action).  You may jump over your own pieces.  You may not jump over your opponents pieces, but you can capture them by landing on them.  the "fine print" rules If one player is reduced by captures to a single piece, that is a win for the captured player.  If a move simultaneously creates a win for both the player moving and the opponent, the player moving wins. There are actually quite a few Unusual endgames which are at least theoretically possible.

A normal endgame position

 

Here is a typical finished game, where black has just won the game:

Where to Play

Method #1 is to play at home.

Method #2 is to play by web/email

A full play-by-web implementation of LOA is available at Little Golem, along with many other fine games.

Method #3 Play a human or computer opponent, on line.

Lines of Action is online here at BoardSpace.net.   The online version is based on the same java applet as the rest of the LOA web site, but with upgraded graphics, and live opponents.  I believe this this version is much more satisfactory than the version at LudoTeka, which was nice in principle, but never really satisfactory as a site for serious games.

Variations

Wish List

• the Stanford LOA program
  
I've got the program (or at least a version of it) but who wrote it? Here's what I know about it: It was written at Stanford, in a Language called SAIL. It ran on the PDP-10 at the the Stanford AI lab, circa 1975.
• an ancient issue of Science (Mathematical Games)
  
This is a fractured reference to a magazine article about LOA. What magazine, which issue?

My notes about LOA

However, Philip Cohen reports owning an actual boxed board, published by a German company called "Hexgames".

I have before me a wooden box containing Lines of Action, (c) Hexagames 1987 (a West German game company). Soucie's name is on the front of the Spielanleitung/Game Instructions/Regles de Jeu sheet. There's a rolled-up cloth board and twelve square wooden pieces, brown with beige fleurs-de-lis on them or beige with brown fleurs-de-lis. The advantage over checker pieces is that you can play four-handed or ambidextrous LOA with them by orienting the fleurs-de-lis differently on the four sides

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Abacusspiele
D-63303 Dreieich
Schopenhauerstr. 41
T.: 06103 36626
Fax.: 06103 65273

Since its invention and up to now, Lines of Action has led a nomadic existence on the fringes of gamers' society. I was introduced to the game by my friend Dave Poole, who said it was "from Stanford", but otherwise had no idea where it came from. This kind of irregular introduction seems to be pretty much the norm. For example, Don Woods wrote:

I don't know, but I do remember that John Gilbert, David Wall, et al. had encountered the game prior to coming to Stanford. (They called it "John's Sister's Game", because they'd heard about it from John's sister and didn't know the actual name.)

John's sister, Jean Gilbert, introduced it to us; I have the vague idea she learned about it at university, though whether that was the University of New Mexico where we were all undergraduates or UC Santa Cruz where she got a masters, I don't recall.

Hey There Guys (and Gals)! I have a game for you to try! I don't think this game has a title, but it appears to be non-trivial. I saw it in an ancient issue of Science (Mathematical Games). We've been having a blast playing it. It requires a checker board and checkers.

Keeping in Touch and other resources

Other LOA pages

• Mark Winands  LOA program page
• Mona and YL's (Two Computer programs) LOA page
• Lines of Action pages in Italian here
  
• Loa discussion group archive