Fanorona - Rules, History & Strategy Guide

Fanorona grew out of the older stone-lined boards of Madagascar and became the island’s national game, wrapped in Malagasy legend and royal history. Tradition holds that a diviner once used a game of Fanorona to delay a king long enough to change the fate of a kingdom — a story that captures how seriously the game was taken as a test of foresight.

Descended from the same draughts family as checkers, Fanorona keeps the familiar idea of jumping stones but replaces it with two radically different capture methods and long forced chains. That combination gives it a reputation as one of the deepest of the traditional capture games, and it has been studied by mathematicians and solved for its smaller variants.

You play the ivory stones against an onyx AI on a 5×9 grid of 45 points, where diagonals exist only on the strong even points. The goal is to capture every enemy stone.

1. Move one stone a single step along a line to an adjacent empty point.
2. Capture by approach when your step lands next to an enemy line ahead; capture by withdrawal when your step moves directly away from an enemy line behind.
3. When a single step could capture both ways, you choose which enemy line is removed.
4. After a capture the same stone may keep striking — each strike must change direction and never revisit a visited point.
5. Capturing is mandatory whenever a capture exists; the first player to clear all enemy stones wins.

• Look for double-threat steps where one move can capture two different lines and take the larger haul.
• Because capture is forced, bait the AI into a mandatory move that fractures its formation.
• Plan whole chains before committing — a well-aimed zig-zag can clear a third of the board in one turn.
• Fight for the strong diagonal points; they offer the most directions to strike and to escape.
• Keep your back rank intact early, since broken lines invite withdrawal captures.

The most common form is Fanoron-Tsivy on the 5×9 board, but smaller boards — Fanoron-Telo (3×3) and Fanoron-Dimy (5×5) — are used for teaching and quick play. House rules vary on how draws and repeated positions are handled, and competitive Malagasy play uses strict conventions for the mandatory-capture and chain rules.