Clusterfuss 2023

Clusterfuss is a two-player game played on a square board of any size, initially filled with interspersed checkers. The two players, Red and Blue, take turns moving their own checkers, one checker per turn, starting with Red. Passing is not allowed, but if you don't have an available move, your turn is skipped.

You win by removing all enemy checkers from the board.

Moves and groupsEvery move must be an orthogonal king capture. That is, you must move to capture a checker immediately above, below, to the right, or to the left. You can capture a friendly checker or an enemy checker.

Groups are comprised of checkers interconnected horizontally or vertically, or both. Diagonal adjacencies are irrelevant in Clusterfuss. Groups may contain checkers of either or both colors.

At the conclusion of your turn, there should only be one group on the board. You can only make a move such that after your move there will only be one group containing your checkers, which group may also contain enemy checkers. If your move detaches groups comprised only of enemy checkers, immediately remove those groups from the board, concluding your turn.

Design notesClusterfuss is predated by a similar game, Advanced Forms (2011), by Steven W. Meyers.