Fanorona is a two-player ancient board game from Madagascar. This version is played on a 9x5 board consisting intersecting lines. Each player starts with 22 pieces of his/her own color which are placed on the board at the beginning. White starts first. Players alternate turn to play. The aim is to capture all of opponent's pieces to win.
Players can move a piece to any adjacent empty intersection along the connecting lines. There are two types of moves. One where a player can capture opponent's pieces and another where no opponent piece can be captured. A non-capturing move can not be made if a player has one or more capturing moves.
Capturing opponent's piece can be done by either moving next to the opponent's piece (called Approach) or, withdrawing away from the opponent's piece which was placed next to the player's piece (called Withdrawal). If a player can make both Approach as well as Withdrawal move for a piece, only one move can be made and not both. A point can not be repeated in same turn.
When an opponent piece is captured, all other opponent pieces along the same line and direction beyond that piece are also captured and removed from the board (as long as it is not interrupted by an empty intersection or player's own piece).
Successive captures are optionally allowed in the same turn as long as it is not in the same direction as the previous capture.