Grabber is a combinatorial game based on the column checkers method of capture found in games like Bashni, Lasca, Stapeldammen and Emergo. It is the column checkers version of a traditional Hawaiian game called Konane.

RULES:
There are two players, Red and Blue. Red moves first after which turns alternate. Moving is compulsory. All movement is orthogonal.

PIECES:
Columns will arise in the game. Single pieces are considered "columns of one". Columns may be of one or both colors. By the nature of the mechanism there will, in the latter case, always be one color on top with prisoners underneath. The top part is called "the cap" and determines the owner.

MOVING:
On each of his first two moves, each player takes one friendly man off the board.
After these initial moves, every move must be a capture. A piece captures an orthogonally adjacent piece by jumping over it to a vacant square immediately behond, taking the top man along under it as its prisoner. If a player after the first capture can proceed in a similiar matter in the same or a perpendicular direction he may do so, but is not obliged to do so (ie. pass). A multiple capture may be terminated at any square.

In the course of a multiple capture a piece may visit the same square more than once as well as capture the same piece more than once. If more than one capture is available, players are free to choose.

OBJECT:
If a player on his turn cannot make a capture, he loses the game.

ADDITIONAL:

• Every time a single man is captured, the number of pieces decreases by one. Since there is no way to increase the number of pieces, there will be progressively fewer pieces.
• Grabber is not an elimination game. A player may have plenty of pieces but no capture. So making multiple captures may not always serve the game's object and will often run counter to it.
• A free stand-alone version of Grabber can be downloaded from: http://www.mindsports.nl/index.php/axiom