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Bushka
Linear movement
Linear movement is defined as the move of a straight unbroken line of men of the same color,
one square along the line of squares they occupy, provided the square in front is vacant.
Linear movement does not apply to kings.
A single man moves one square forward as if it were a line-of-one, but the concept of
linear capture, absent in Dameo but a key element in Bushka,
does not apply to a single man.
Capture by approach
Bushka's 'capture by approach' originates in Fanorona, a game
from Madagascar. In Bushka it is trimmed down, compared to that game, and subject to the same rules and
conventions that govern International Draughts.
Draughts |
Bushka |
Both games are about a simple two-men-three-squares scenario: on the left a black and a white man are on
adjacent squares. Put the cursor on the picture and see the white man jumping the
black man, landing on the third square and removing the jumped man from play.
That's Draughts capture. On the right the men are one square apart.
Put the cursor on the picture and see the white man approaching the black man, landing
on the middle square and removing the jumped man from play. That's Bushka capture.
Bushka looks like Draughts, and has indeed structural similarities, but it is
a very different game, far more flexible in terms of development, and allowing positions that
are quite unlike those found in the latter.
In Bushka, as in
three kings against one
is a win. In that respect both are better than International Draughts, but they still fall short of
.
There's this other thing: Bushka started out on a 9x11 board, with only three ranks between the forces.
This made for openings that were as narrow as deviation from them was spectacular. Like opening a wolf trap.
Fun as the charting of this minefield was, it eventually became clear that it did little justice to
the beautiful and intricate tactics of the middle- and endgame: the game required more freedom in the opening.
The solution was simple: put it on a 10x10 board. The forces are now 4 rows apart,
leaving ample room for different opening strategies. Although there are two men less per side, the actual
number of different opening moves increases from 13 to 24 because there's no vertical axis of symmetry.
The rather extensive opening theory of the 9x11 version is down the drain of course - it was great to chart it out and
it gave me a deep respect for the game's resources. But it is no longer applicable and in the light of the greater freedom
the opening now provides, the emphasis should be on finding an outline of the main alleys of strategy and making an inventory
of the accompanying tactics.
Many of the 9x11 problems have been translated to the new board - a display of karate-like tactics for those who want to
see what Bushka is about.
Rules
The rules mention men and
kings. A king is a promoted man.
If the difference doesn't matter, they may also mention
pieces,
for instance 'the number of pieces on the board'.
On the board there are squares and lines.
These are always dark squares and oblique lines, like the 'e-line' or the '5-line'.
A square is identified as the intersection of two lines.
The 1- and 0-line each count but one square.
The five most distant squares from a player's point of view are called the back rank.
The diagram shows the board and the pieces in initial position. There are two players,
black and white. White begins. Players move - and must move - in turn.
Object
-
If a player has no legal move he loses the game. This may come about either
by being eliminated or being blocked completely
Movement
Capture has precedence over a non-capturing move. If the player to move has no capture to make,
he has the following options:
- Moving a man or a line of men
- Moving a king
Piece movement
-
A man moves one cell forward along a line, provided it is vacant.
If a man reaches the back rank, it is promoted to king. This marks the end of the move.
A king moves any distance along an open line
Linear movement
-
The shortest possible line consists of two men. A king is never part
of a line of men. A line moves, as a whole, one square forward along the line of squares it defines,
provided the square in front is vacant. A line may not move backward. If it
hits the back rank, only the front man promotes. A two-men line gets dissolved in the process.
In actual play not all men of a line are moved. One simply picks up the last man of
the line one intends to move, and puts it in front.
This may be any man of the line from the second to the last. In the diagram all white's options
for his initial move are displayed.
Capture
Capture is compulsory. In Bushka all capture is by approach.
There are two distinct ways to do this: Linear capture and Piece capture.
Linear capture means capture with a line of men.
Piece capture means capture with a single man or a king.
-
Linear capture always precedes over piece capture! Within each
principle, majority capture precedes
-
If the player to move can make exactly one linear capture, he must do so.
If he can make more than one, he must choose the capture that brings the
maximum number of captured pieces. A king counts as one piece.
If there's more than one way to meet this criterion, the player is free to choose
-
If the player to move cannot make a linear capture, he must look for a piece capture.
If he can make exactly one, he must do so.
If he can make more than one, he must choose the capture that brings the
maximum number of captured pieces. A king counts as one piece.
If there's more than one way to meet this criterion, the player is free to choose
Linear capture
A line of men makes only one move in a turn!
In a capture, this move may be forwards or backwards.
If the square in front of a line of men is vacant and the square beyond is occupied by an
opponent's piece, the line of men captures by approaching one square, 'touching' the piece
with its head.
- If the piece is a king, it is therewith captured and removed in the same turn
- If the piece is a man that is the head of an opposing line of men
on the same line, that entire line is therewith captured and
removed. If it is not the head of an opposing line of men, only the man itself is captured
Piece capture
Where a linear capture keeps a particular line, a piece-capture may not.
A piece may capture both forward and backward and may change direction as often
as is required under the condition of majority capture.
The first condition for making a piece-capture is the absence
of a linear capture.
A man that is the head of a line of men in a particular direction can
therefore never capture as a piece in that direction.
Of course the man may be the head of a line of men in one direction,
but not so in the perpendicular direction.
The man is then called isolated in the latter direction.
- A man can only start a capture in a direction in which it is isolated.
Once the capture starts, the man remains isolated by definition for the rest of the turn
- If a man is isolated on a particular line, and next to it on that line is a vacant
square followed by a square occupied by an opponent's piece, then the man captures
the piece by making a one step approach onto the vacant square.
Note that a piece captures only a piece, not an entire line of men.
If the man, now isolated by definition, can proceed in a similar way in another
direction, including a 180 degrees turn, it must do so,
taking care beforehand to establish
the route that brings the maximum number of captured pieces.
A king counts as one piece.
If there are more than one way to meet this criterion, the player is free to choose
- Never being part of a line of men, a king is isolated by definition.
It looks along open lines.
If it sees, at any distance, an opponent's piece, then the king captures this piece by
approaching onto the last vacant square before it.
If it can proceed in a similar way in another direction,
including a 180 degrees turn,
it must do so, taking care beforehand to establish the route that brings
maximum number of captured pieces.
If there are more than one way to meet this criterion, the player is free to choose
- After - and only after - a multiple capture has taken its complete course,
the captured pieces are removed from play
- In the course of a multiple capture a piece may visit the same square
more than once,
but it may not capture the same piece more than once
The example above shows the maximum line of men that can be captured (7 on the e-line).
White must first pull c5 to c4 by 1. dc3 c54x, to get
a two-men line on the 4-line. Then he pulls it to the e-line: 2. f34 cxe4, after which 3. e1x3 clears the e-line.
He cannot pull the single man to e4 because it would capture two men on f4 and e2: 1. f34? d4e3x.
Since a line of men may capture both forwards and backwards, the expression "the square in front"
must be seen within the direction of the move. In the above position white moves
1. e12 e5x3 2. e7x5, a backwards linear capture.
A very common example of basic tactics is the T-strike above: white moves 1. e45 giving black the trivial choice
between de4x 2. e5x capturing with a 180 degrees turn, and e76x 2. f4e5x.
To illustrate the rule that a piece may not be captured twice, take a look at this problem by Myron Freeling:
white moves 1. f67 f98x 2. e56 and now the black king must capture as indicated,
stopping on g6 because the man on e6 has already been captured. Next white clears the board.
Draws
- The game may end in a draw by 3-fold or mutual agreement
Notation
On the board there are oblique lines like the 'e-line' or the '5-line'.
A square is identified as the intersection of two lines.
The 1- and 0-line each count but one square.
A non capturing move always keeps a particular line. The index change on that line is
sufficient to indicate the move. Thus f45 and gf5 indicate moves of a white man or any king,
while d25 and he6 indicate moves of a white line of men or any king.
A linear capture also keeps a particular line. Here the capture sign 'x' comes in between the
indices, for instance hxe5 or g3x5.
A multiple piece-capture does not necessarily keep a particular line and may end on the square
of origin. The 'x' sign now comes after the indices, for instance e8h6x, ef8x or f6x.
You can play Bushka online in
Signs used in notation are:
| ! | Good move |
| !! | Very good move |
| ? | Bad move |
| ?? | Blunder |
| !? | Doubtful |
| ?! | Risky |
| = | Equal position, draw |
| + | Won |
| - | Lost |
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