The object of this game is to score points by capturing opponent's pieces and controlling stacks. A stack consists of two or three pieces, and is controlled by the player owning the topmost piece. Each turn, a player may do one of the following:
- Drop a piece on an empty cell. This can be done only if the player has fewer than 18 pieces already on the board.
- Move a piece or a stack on top of an opponent's piece or stack. The resulting stack must be three pieces or less, and capturing is not allowed in the third move of the game. (That is, player 1 cannot immediately capture the piece dropped on player 2's first move).
An action of either type is legal only if afterwards, all pieces and stacks form a single connected group. Connections can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.
Player score points by controlling single pieces and stacks: 1 point for a single piece, 2 points for a stack of two, and 3 points for a stack of three. In order to score, a player's piece or stack must be adjacent (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) to an opponent's piece or stack.
The game is over when neither player can move, and the player with the highest score wins.
Player 1 (red) can move the highlighted red piece on top of the highlighted blue piece, creating a stack of two and preserving the single connected group. Player 2 cannot move the blue piece on top of the red piece, because that would leave the bottom pieces disconnected. For scoring, the player 2's blue stack in the top row doesn't count, nor do player 1's red pieces in the leftmost column, because they are not adjacent to opposing pieces or stacks.
Abande was created by Dieter Stein, and official rules are available here.