How to play
Breakthrough was invented by Dan Troyka in 2000, and it takes about a minute to learn. Picture a chessboard where both armies are nothing but pawns: sixteen each, filling the two rows nearest their owner. White starts at the bottom and moves first. Black starts at the top.
Every piece moves one square toward the enemy side per turn, and there are only three squares it can go to:
- Straight forward, but only if that square is empty. A piece never captures straight ahead, so two pieces nose to nose simply block each other.
- Diagonally forward-left or forward-right, onto an empty square or onto an enemy piece. Landing on an enemy removes it from the board.
Pieces never move sideways or backward, and there is no promotion, no double step, no special move of any kind. Capturing is never forced; you can always choose a quiet step instead.
You win the moment one of your pieces reaches the opponent’s home row, or when you’ve captured all of their pieces. A draw can’t happen: as long as you have a piece, at least one of its forward squares is open or holds an enemy to capture.
On this board
Tap one of your pieces and the squares it can reach are highlighted; a red ring marks a capture. Tap a highlighted square to move. The status line counts the pieces each side has left, and the last move stays marked.
The Opponent buttons switch between Computer and Friend. Against the computer you are white and choose Easy, Medium or Hard. With a friend, two people share the screen and take turns as white and black. Hint suggests a move for the side to play, Undo steps back (your move and the computer’s reply together, or one move against a friend), and New game starts fresh. Everything is saved as you go.
How the computer plays
The computer searches ahead and scores positions by material, how far each piece has advanced, whether pieces are attacked without a defender behind them, and how many pieces still guard its home row. It also checks captures past the normal search depth, so it rarely walks into a trade that loses a piece. In our test games, Hard beat Medium 8 times out of 8 and Medium beat Easy 12 out of 12. Games averaged about 50 moves.
Strategy
Your home row is your goal line. Once an enemy piece gets past your defence, the only thing that can stop it is a piece of yours diagonally in front of it, ready to capture. Pieces left on your first row do exactly that job. Most strong players hold a few home pieces back until late in the game, especially in the centre.
Support every piece that advances. A piece with a friend diagonally behind it is defended: if the enemy captures it, your supporter recaptures on the same square. A lone piece pushed deep into enemy lines usually just gets taken for nothing.
Count attackers and defenders. A square where both sides can capture becomes a chain of trades. Before you start one, count how many of your pieces can reach that square against how many of theirs. If the numbers favour you, the last piece standing on that square is yours.
Watch for the runner. Every time a trade opens a file, check whether any piece now has a free path to the far row. A runner two rows from home with no defender in its way wins the race, because you won’t have time to block it. The computer looks for this constantly.
Mind the tempo. When the two fronts lock against each other, the side forced to step into an attacked square loses material. Keep a few safe waiting moves in reserve, such as pieces on your own back rows that can step without being captured, so your opponent runs out first.
Don’t empty a wing. A wing with no pieces of yours is an open road. If you attack on one side, leave at least one or two defenders on the other.
The pieces move a lot like pawns in Chess, and the diagonal capturing will feel familiar if you play Checkers.
If you enjoy Breakthrough, try Çanak Okey or Checkers next.
