How to Play Fanorona

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

Fanorona is a two-player abstract strategy game played on a 5x9 intersection board with 22 pieces per side. It is built entirely around a distinctive capturing system in which pieces are taken not by landing on them but by moving towards or away from a line of enemy pieces, making every move a calculated threat or retreat.

Players love it for the tension between aggression and restraint: a single well-judged move can remove several pieces at once, while a careless advance can gift your opponent an equally powerful reply. It is widely played as a household and community game and is particularly popular in Madagascar, where it holds deep cultural significance.

A little history

Fanorona is traditionally associated with Madagascar and is documented there from at least the late seventeenth century, with written references appearing in European accounts of the island from around 1680. Its origins before that point are unclear, and claims about earlier provenance or precise routes of introduction to the island are not reliably documented. The game has long been recognised as Madagascar's national board game and is played widely across the country to this day.

Setting up

1. Place the board so the 5x9 grid of intersections is visible, with lines connecting adjacent and diagonal points.
2. White places 22 pieces on all intersections of the top two full rows plus the left half of the middle row (the five leftmost points of row 3).
3. Dark places 22 pieces on all intersections of the bottom two full rows plus the right half of the middle row (the five rightmost points of row 3).
4. The centre intersection of the middle row (position 3,5) is left empty at the start of the game.
5. Dark (the darker-coloured pieces) moves first.

How to play

1. Players alternate turns. On your turn you must move one of your pieces along a printed line to an adjacent empty intersection.
2. Each intersection is connected by lines to its orthogonal and, where the printed diagonals exist, diagonal neighbours. Not all intersections have diagonal connections; pieces may only travel along lines that are printed on the board.
3. A move is either a capturing move or, if no capture is available, a non-capturing move called a paika move.
4. Capturing by approach: move your piece towards a straight line of one or more enemy pieces along the same line of travel. All enemy pieces in that unbroken line are removed from the board.
5. Capturing by withdrawal: move your piece directly away from a straight line of one or more enemy pieces along the line you came from. All enemy pieces in that unbroken line are removed from the board.
6. If both approach and withdrawal captures are available from the same starting point and direction, you must choose one; you cannot take both in a single step.
7. After making a capture you may continue moving the same piece in a series of further captures, called a sequence. Each subsequent capture must be to a different intersection from any already visited in that sequence, must be in a different direction from the previous step, and must itself be a valid approach or withdrawal capture.
8. You may not revisit any intersection the piece has already occupied during the current sequence.
9. A capturing sequence ends when you choose to stop, when no further captures are available from the current position, or when the only captures available would require revisiting an intersection already used in the sequence.
10. If any capturing move is available to you, you must make at least one capture; you cannot choose a paika move instead.
11. A paika move is a single step along a line to an adjacent empty intersection with no capture. Paika moves are only permitted when you have no capturing move of any kind available.
12. Pieces are removed from the board as each capturing step is completed within a sequence, so subsequent steps in the sequence are affected by those removals.

Winning and scoring

The player who captures all of their opponent's pieces wins the game. If a player is reduced to pieces that can move but cannot capture, and their opponent still has pieces, play continues until one side is eliminated entirely. A player who cannot move at all on their turn loses immediately. Some players also agree in advance that a player reduced to a single piece loses without further play, though the standard rule is to play on until full elimination.

The fine points

The most common dispute involves the mandatory capture rule: if any capturing move exists, the player must take it. Unlike some games, there is no obligation to take the largest available capture; you may choose any legal capturing move. However, once a sequence begins you must continue if further captures remain legal from the current position and have not been blocked by the sequence restrictions. Stopping a sequence early when a continuation exists is not permitted under standard rules.

A second common edge case arises with the middle row at setup: the precise allocation of the five left and five right intersections of row three must be agreed before play so both sides understand the starting formation. On boards where diagonal lines are sparse, players sometimes dispute whether a connection exists between two specific intersections; the board's printed lines are the sole authority and pieces may only travel along those lines. Any intersection with fewer than eight connections is normal and does not represent a defect in the rules.

How to win more often

• Control the centre intersections early: pieces placed near the middle of the board have more available lines of travel and can threaten in more directions simultaneously.
• Look for withdrawal captures as well as approach captures before committing to a move. Withdrawal captures are easy to overlook but often remove more pieces than the obvious forward approach.
• Plan sequences before you move. Count all the intersections your piece will visit and confirm you are not going to block yourself from a valuable later capture by arriving at the wrong square.
• Avoid leaving your pieces in long unbroken lines: a line of your own pieces facing an opponent who can approach or withdraw is exactly the formation they need for a high-value capture.
• When you are ahead in pieces, simplify the position by trading captures rather than building elaborate sequences. When behind, force complex sequences to create opportunities for multi-piece captures that close the gap quickly.

Variations

Fanoron-Telo

A smaller version played on a 3x3 board with three pieces per side, sometimes used to introduce younger or newer players to the approach and withdrawal capturing system before moving to the full game. The rules for capturing and movement are identical, but the reduced board means games are very short and the strategic depth is limited.

Fanoron-Dimy

Played on a 5x5 board with nine pieces per side, this mid-size variant sits between Fanoron-Telo and the full Fanorona game in complexity and playing time. It uses the same capturing rules and is a useful step for players building their understanding of sequence planning before tackling the 5x9 board.

Paika-Only Fanorona

An informal teaching variant in which the mandatory capture rule is suspended and players may make paika moves freely regardless of whether captures are available. This is sometimes used in the early stages of teaching the game to children, allowing them to grow comfortable with movement before the obligation to capture is introduced. It is not considered a standard competitive form of the game.

Timed Sequence Fanorona

In some competitive settings a clock or agreed time limit is applied to each individual sequence, not merely each turn, to prevent excessively long deliberation during multi-step captures. The underlying rules are unchanged; only a timing constraint is added. Players must agree the time allowance before the game begins.

Fanorona: frequently asked questions