Streak
0
Best
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Indonesia's loop-capture classic. You cannot take a piece in front of you — you must ride the arcs around the board and strike it from behind.
Both sides start with twelve pieces filling their two nearest rows. On your turn a piece either moves or captures.
Moving is simple: one square in any of the eight directions, onto an empty square. It never captures.
Capturing is the whole game. A piece sets off along its own row or column, runs off the edge of the board, follows one of the eight arcs drawn outside the corners, re-enters along the line the arc connects to, and keeps going until it meets a piece. If that piece is an enemy and every square along the route was empty, it is captured and your piece lands on its square. The one hard requirement is that you must pass through at least one arc, which is why a piece standing directly in your path can never be taken by simply walking into it.
The arcs only join the second and third lines from each edge, so the outermost row is a safe harbour: pieces there cannot capture and cannot be captured. Every piece that steps inward gains the power to take and the risk of being taken at the same time.
You win by capturing all twelve enemy pieces or by leaving your opponent with no legal move. Each win adds one to your streak, and a single loss resets it.
The single biggest mistake is leaving your own lines open. Every capture needs a completely clear route, which means your pieces are only in danger along rows and columns that have been swept empty. Before you move a piece off a line, ask what that line now connects — you frequently open a road for the enemy at the same moment you open one for yourself.
The outermost row is genuinely safe, and that matters more than it sounds. Pieces there cannot be taken at all, so they are a reserve you can hold while the middle is being contested. Emptying that row early feels like development, but it hands the opponent targets before you have anything to shoot at. Move pieces inward one or two at a time, keeping the back rank as a wall.
Count the arcs when you calculate. A route that crosses two or three arcs is perfectly legal and is exactly the kind of capture people miss, because the eye follows the short way round and stops. When you think you are safe from a piece across the board, trace the long direction as well — that is where the surprises live.
Trades are not neutral here. Because capturing requires open lines, the side with fewer pieces usually finds it easier to attack: emptier board, longer clear runs. If you are ahead on material, close lines and keep the position crowded; if you are behind, force exchanges and open everything you can. That asymmetry is what keeps a losing position playable and a winning one delicate.