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Fanorona

Displacement and Capture Games

Fanorona is a two-player strategy board game from Madagascar, played on a five-by-nine grid of intersections, in which players capture opposing pieces by approaching or withdrawing custody moves along the grid lines, with the game traditionally ending when one side has captured all of the opponent's pieces or neither side can capture further. It is Madagascar's national board game and is generally considered to have developed on the island, with some scholars linking its lineage to earlier alignment and capture games such as alquerque, though the precise line of descent is debated among historians of the game.

Facts
Sport
Game Type (category)
Board Game 1
Game Type (category)
Strategy Game 1
Classification
Player Count
Two-Player 1
Wikipedia infobox (Fanorona) players field: '2'
Originating Region
Madagascar 1
Game Type
Abstract strategy board game 1
Connections

Derived From

Alquerque, Games

Why this is disputed. Fanorona is Madagascar's national board game; some scholars link its lineage to alquerque-family capture games introduced by Arab or later traders, but the precise line of descent is debated among game historians rather than settled, per the entity's own record.

Source A History of Board-Games Other Than ChessH.J.R. Murray
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Fanorona (Wikipedia)
  • Lead section, origin
    The game is indigenous to Madagascar.
  • Opening sentence
    Fanorona is a strategy board game for two players.
  • Infobox, players field
    2
  • entity record, description lead (player-count)
    Fanorona is a two-player strategy board game from Madagascar, played on a five-by-nine grid of intersections, in which players capture opposing pieces by approaching or withdrawing custody moves along the grid lines, with the game traditionally ending when one side has captured all of the opponent's pieces or neither side can capture further. It is Madagascar's national board game and is
View the Source
Wikidata: Fanorona
Wikidata Q1395834, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess
H.J.R. Murray, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1952Derived From: Alquerque

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