How to play Arimaa

Learn the rules to the chess variant board game Arimaa quickly and concisely - This video has no distractions, just the rules.

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RULES:
The object of the game is to be the first player to get one of your rabbits to the other side of the board. Layout the board. The gold player places their pieces however they like on their closest two rows. Once they have finished, then the silver player places their pieces however they want on their closest two rows. Once finished, the gold player goes first, then turns alternate.

All pieces move the same: one space forward, backwards, left, or right; except for the rabbit, the rabbit may not move backwards towards your side of the board. Pieces may not share spaces with either color, nor move off the board.

On your turn, you can move your pieces a total of 4 steps. Moving a piece from its current space to the next adjacent space counts as 1 step. Pieces can take multiple steps and may change directions after each step. Steps may be distributed among multiple pieces so that up to 4 pieces can be moved in a turn. You do not have to use all four steps in a turn, you may pass on some of them so long as you take at least 1 step. Any passed steps are lost and may not be used on later turns.

Pieces have a strength associated with them based on how big the animal is. Elephant is the strongest, followed by camel, horse, dog, cat, rabbit. Stronger pieces can move their opponent’s pieces that are weaker than it. Pieces may not move friendly pieces nor an opponent’s piece of the same strength. It takes 2 steps to move an opponent’s piece and both steps must be completed in the same turn. You can move their piece one of 2 ways: by pushing or pulling. In both instances your stronger piece must be adjacent to your opponent’s piece before it can move it.

To push, first move your opponent’s piece to any one of its available adjacent spaces, then move your piece into its vacated space. To pull, first move your piece to any of its available adjacent spaces, then move the pulled piece to your pieces vacated space. Pushes and pulls do not need to be in a straight line. A stronger piece may not move multiple pieces in the same step. Any combination of pushing and pulling may be done in the same turn. You may not push pieces off of the board.

A stronger piece also freezes any opponent’s piece that is weaker than it so long as that piece is adjacent to it. Your opponent may not move their frozen pieces. Your opponent may unfreeze one of their pieces by moving a friendly piece adjacent to it. Then that piece is free to move.

There are 4 traps on the board. Any piece that is on a trap space is immediately removed from the game unless there is a friendly piece next to that trap space to keep the piece safe. You may not pass over a trap safely unless the space is protected.

You may push or pull a rabbit into the goal row it is trying to reach then back out in a single turn without immediately losing. If you are unable to make a move because all your pieces are frozen or you don’t have a legal move, then you lose. If you lose all your rabbits, then you lose the game. If both players lose all their rabbits on the same turn, then the player who’s turn it was who made that move wins.

The first player to get a rabbit to the opposite side of the board wins!