How to Play Breakthrough

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

Breakthrough is a two-player abstract strategy game played on a standard 8x8 chessboard. Each player controls sixteen pieces that begin packed along their two nearest rows, and the sole objective is to punch one piece through to the opposite side before your opponent does the same. There are no draws, no dice, and no hidden information, every decision is entirely yours.

Players love Breakthrough because it is easy to learn in minutes yet rewards genuine strategic thinking: when to push forward, when to protect, and when to sacrifice a piece to open a corridor. It works well on a kitchen table, at a games club, or as a quick warm-up before a longer session.

A little history

Breakthrough was designed by Dan Troyka and first published in 2000, where it won the 2001 Abstract Games Magazine game design competition. Its rules were released freely into the public domain, which helped the game spread widely through the abstract-strategy community. Beyond that competition record, its broader history is short and well-documented: it is a modern, designed game rather than a folk game with ancient roots.

Setting up

1. Place the board between the two players so that each player has a near edge and a far edge.
2. Player 1 fills rows 1 and 2 (the two rows nearest to them) with all 16 of their pieces, one per square.
3. Player 2 fills rows 7 and 8 (the two rows nearest to them) with all 16 of their pieces, one per square.
4. The board is now full across four rows, with a four-row gap in the middle.
5. Decide who moves first by any agreed method. Player 1 always moves toward row 8; Player 2 always moves toward row 1.

How to play

1. Players alternate turns. On your turn you must move exactly one of your pieces.
2. A piece may move one square straight forward (toward the opponent's back row) if that square is empty.
3. A piece may move one square diagonally forward (left or right) if that square is either empty or occupied by an opponent's piece.
4. If you move diagonally onto a square occupied by an opponent's piece, that opponent's piece is removed from the board immediately. This is the only way to capture.
5. You cannot move straight forward onto a square occupied by any piece, yours or your opponent's.
6. You cannot move backwards or sideways under any circumstances.
7. You must make a move on your turn; there is no option to pass.
8. A piece that reaches the opponent's back row wins the game immediately for that player. It does not promote or change, reaching the far edge is itself the winning condition.
9. If a player has no legal moves on their turn, they lose the game.

Winning and scoring

You win the instant any one of your pieces lands on any square of your opponent's back row (the row furthest from your starting position). There is no scoring system and no partial credit, the game ends immediately when this happens. Equally, if on your turn every one of your remaining pieces is completely blocked with no legal move available, you lose. In practice this second condition is rare because Breakthrough games are almost always decided by a piece reaching the far edge first.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns diagonal moves onto empty squares. The rules are clear: a diagonal move to an empty square is fully legal. Some players new to the game assume diagonal movement is only for capturing, as in draughts, but in Breakthrough any diagonal-forward move to an empty square is permitted. Clarify this before play begins to avoid arguments mid-game.

A subtler point arises when a player has pieces remaining but every single one is blocked straight ahead by any piece and has no empty or enemy-occupied diagonal square available either. This is a genuine no-legal-moves loss and should stand. However, because the board opens up quickly as pieces are taken, this situation almost never occurs in ordinary play. If it does arise, confirm that every piece has been checked before conceding the loss on that basis.

How to win more often

• Advance on a broad front early on rather than rushing a single piece: multiple threats force your opponent to split their defence.
• Use diagonal captures deliberately to open files. Removing a blocking opponent piece can clear a straight-ahead corridor for a piece several rows back.
• Guard your fastest-advancing piece with a piece one square behind and to the side. A lone leader is easily picked off by a diagonal capture.
• Count tempos. If you can see that a piece will reach the back row in three moves, check whether your opponent has a piece that can reach their back row in two or fewer moves. If so, your attack must wait while you intercept.
• Avoid leaving your own pieces as easy diagonal captures without any compensation. Every piece lost is one fewer threat and one fewer blocker.

Variations

Small Board Breakthrough

Played on a 6x6 board with six pieces per player filling the two nearest rows. The game plays faster and suits younger players or those wanting a shorter session. All movement and capture rules remain identical; only the board size and piece count change.

Landbreaker

In this variant a player also wins if they capture all of their opponent's pieces before anyone reaches the far edge. This adds a second winning condition and makes aggressive captures far more significant strategically, since wiping out the opposition is now a viable plan rather than a side effect of ordinary play.

Symmetric Setup Variant

Instead of filling two complete rows, each player places their pieces only in the two outer columns and alternating squares of the inner rows, creating a more open starting position. The additional space from move one changes the early game considerably and tends to produce faster, more tactical play with fewer mass exchanges in the centre.

Weighted Pieces

For a handicap game between players of unequal experience, the stronger player starts with fewer pieces, typically twelve rather than sixteen, placed freely across their two home rows. The weaker player keeps all sixteen. This levels the contest without changing any movement or capturing rules.

Breakthrough: frequently asked questions