Overview

Breakthrough is a two-player game where the first player to move one of his pieces to the opposite board edge wins. You try to win by maneuvering your pieces across the board, avoiding enemy capture and coordinating attacks to break through to the other side.

Board

The standard Breakthrough board size is 8x8. Igfip™ supports a range of smaller and larger board sizes as well as rectangular boards and obstructed spaces.

Although not a standard part of the game, Breakthrough is a more interesting game when played using obstructed spaces. You can use the obstruction editor before starting a game to create your own board configurations.

Pieces

Each player starts with a number of pieces equal to twice the number of board columns (e.g., 16 pieces on an 8x8 board). This number changes throughout the game as a result of captures. A player's pieces start the game filling up the first two board rows on the player's side of the board.

Rules

1. White moves first.
2. A piece may move one space forward, directly or diagonally, into an empty space. Pieces may not move backward.
3. A piece may capture an opposing piece, removing it from the board, by moving diagonally forward into the space it occupies. You may not move a piece directly forward into a space occupied by an opposing piece.
4. The game ends when a player moves a piece to the row on the opposite edge of the board. The player to accomplish that first wins. If at any point in the game, neither player can make a legal move, the game ends in a draw.