How to Play Amazons

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Amazons is a two-player abstract strategy game played on a 10x10 grid. Each side controls four amazon pieces that move like chess queens, but after every move the active amazon fires an arrow that permanently seals a square. As the game progresses, the board fills with blocked squares, dividing the territory into isolated regions until one player can no longer move.

Players love Amazons for the satisfying tension between expansion and restriction: every turn simultaneously threatens your opponent and narrows your own future options. It rewards careful spatial thinking without requiring memorised openings, making it accessible to newcomers while offering genuine depth to experienced players. The game is typically played on a printed or physical 10x10 board at home, at board-game clubs, or online.

A little history

Amazons was designed by Walter Zamkauskas of Argentina and first published in the Spanish puzzle and games magazine El Acertijo in 1992. It subsequently attracted serious attention from combinatorial game theorists, and by the late 1990s it had become a well-studied subject in mathematical game theory, including analysis by Elwyn Berlekamp and colleagues. Beyond those documented facts, its earlier influences or inspirations are not reliably recorded.

Setting up

1. Place the board so that both players have a long edge nearest to them.
2. White places four amazons on d1, g1, a4, and j4 (using standard algebraic notation, columns a-j left to right, rows 1-10 bottom to top).
3. Black places four amazons on d10, g10, a7, and j7.
4. Ensure you have enough arrow markers to fill squares as the game progresses; you will need up to 92 markers in a full game.
5. Decide which player moves first. White traditionally moves first.

How to play

1. Players alternate turns. White moves first.
2. On your turn you must do both parts of your action: move one of your amazons, then shoot one arrow. Neither part may be skipped.
3. Move phase: choose one of your four amazons. Move it any number of squares in a straight line, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, exactly as a queen moves in chess. The amazon cannot pass through or land on any occupied square (whether occupied by another amazon of either colour or by a previously fired arrow). It must move at least one square.
4. Arrow phase: immediately after the amazon lands, it fires one arrow from its new position. The arrow travels in a straight line, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, any number of squares, and cannot pass through any occupied square. The arrow may travel back along the path the amazon just vacated, since that path is now clear. The square where the arrow lands is permanently blocked for the rest of the game; place an arrow marker there.
5. A player loses if, at the start of their turn, none of their four amazons has any legal move available.
6. There is no capturing in Amazons. Amazons and arrows are never removed from the board once placed.
7. If a player has at least one amazon with at least one legal destination square, they must move even if doing so is disadvantageous.

Winning and scoring

The player who makes the last legal move wins. Put another way, the first player who cannot move any of their four amazons on their turn loses. There is no point-scoring system: the result is always a win or a loss. In practice the game ends when the board has been partitioned into separate regions and each amazon is confined to its own territory; once that partition is clear, both players can count the free squares available to each side and the outcome is typically agreed without playing out every move.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns whether an arrow may travel back along the path the amazon just used. It can. The rule is that the arrow fires from the amazon's final position, not its starting position, so the squares the amazon vacated are clear again and the arrow may pass through or land on them. Confirm this ruling before play begins to avoid disagreement mid-game.

A subtler point arises when a player believes the game is decided but wants to resign early. Amazons has no formal resignation rule in its basic form, but it is standard practice to agree the result once both players can count that one side has a greater number of free squares reachable by its own amazons than the other. If a player refuses to concede a clearly lost position, the other player is entitled to require the game to be played to its legal conclusion. Finally, note that a move is only illegal if the amazon has no vacant square to move to: if the amazon can move but all arrow targets from the new square are blocked, that move is still legal only if there is at least one vacant square the amazon could reach where an arrow could also be fired. An amazon must be able to both move and shoot; a destination square from which no arrow can be fired is not a legal destination.

How to win more often

• Divide and confine early: aim to cut your amazons off into a region that is larger than the region trapping your opponent's amazons. Territorial advantage wins the game.
• Use your arrows offensively as well as defensively: a well-placed arrow can restrict an opposing amazon to a tiny pocket of squares before it has a chance to spread out.
• Avoid boxing yourself in: after every arrow you fire, count the squares still accessible to each of your own amazons. Never fire an arrow that leaves one of your own amazons with only one or two escape routes unless you are certain the trade-off is worth it.
• Keep your amazons connected in the early game: amazons that can cooperate to block the same region of the board are more effective than four pieces scattered to the corners independently.
• Think in two stages: the opening is about positioning and territory division; the endgame is about counting free squares and making sure you have one more move available than your opponent. Shift your thinking explicitly as the board fills up.

Variations

6x6 Amazons

A shorter version played on a 6x6 board with two amazons per player rather than four. Starting positions are adjusted to the corners or near-corners. Games conclude in roughly half the time and suit younger players or those new to the game who want to learn the mechanics before tackling the full board.

Misere Amazons

The winning condition is reversed: the player who makes the last legal move loses. This inversion dramatically changes strategy because players must avoid maintaining free space for themselves rather than seeking it. Misere Amazons is considerably less studied than the standard game and produces unusual, counterintuitive play.

Blitz Amazons

Each player is given a fixed clock time, commonly five minutes total per player, using a chess clock. Any move not completed before the clock expires loses the game on time. The format rewards players who can estimate territory quickly rather than calculate exhaustively, and it is a popular format at informal game evenings.

Team Amazons

Four players split into two teams of two, with each team member controlling two of the four amazons on their side. Partners may not discuss their intended moves during play, only acting on their own turn. This variant introduces a coordination puzzle on top of the spatial one, as team-mates must infer each other's intentions from the moves made.

Amazons: frequently asked questions