Amazons

A modern territory classic on a 6×6 board, invented in 1988. Each turn you slide a queen like a chess queen, then shoot an arrow that walls off one square forever. Squares vanish move by move until someone can't move — trap the AI before it traps you, and build the longest streak.

How to play

You have two queens (dark); the AI has two (light). On your turn you make one move in three taps: pick one of your queens, slide it any distance in a straight or diagonal line over empty squares, then shoot an arrow from its new square — the arrow flies the same way and lands on an empty square, blocking it for the rest of the game.

Nothing is ever captured. Every move removes exactly one square from play, so the board slowly fills with blocked squares and everyone's room to move shrinks.

The player who cannot move loses — there are no draws. So the whole game is a race to wall off space for yourself while boxing the AI in.

A win adds 1 to your streak and starts a fresh round; a loss ends the game. The AI plays sharper as your streak grows, and who moves first alternates each round.

Tips & strategy

Amazons is a game about space, not about pieces. Because nothing is captured, the only thing that matters is how many moves you have left when the board finally jams. Think of every arrow as a wall: you are quietly partitioning the board into your rooms and the AI's, and whoever ends up with the larger private room wins.

Use arrows to build walls, not just to fill holes. The strongest arrow is one that seals the AI's queen into a small pocket while leaving your own queen loose in open ground. A queen with a whole quarter of the board to herself can shuffle back and forth for many moves; a queen boxed into three squares runs out fast.

Count your breathing room before you commit. A cramped queen is a liability — if both your queens end up in the same tight corner they will suffocate each other. Spread your two queens toward different regions early so each one claims territory the other doesn't need.

The winning weapon is the sealing move: a queen-slide plus an arrow that together close the last gap in a wall, trapping the AI's queen on the small side. Look for a move where your arrow lands on the one empty square the AI would need to escape through. When you can split the board so your side has even one more square than theirs, the counting is already decided.

The AI starts loose and tightens fast. Below a streak of two it wanders and gives away room, but once your streak climbs it fights for every square with a territory count of its own — the long streaks come from grabbing open space early and walling smartly, not from scrambling once you are already boxed in.