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Phutball

Phutball 1982

Design John Conway Publisher (Public Domain)
6.3 /10
BGG rating
#24833
BGG rank
2.1
Weight
2
Players
2
Best at
20
Minutes
0
Age

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My Prints for Phutball

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Expansions & Promos

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About the Game

The game is played using part of the Go board.

The objective is to score goals by using the men (the black stones) to move the football (the white stone) onto or over the opponent's goal line. Player A tries to move the football to rows 19 or 20 and player B to rows 1 or 0. At the start of the game the football is placed on the central point.

Players alternate making moves. A move is either to add a man to any vacant point on the board or to move the ball.

The football is moved by a series of jumps over adjacent men. Each jump is to the first vacant point in a straight line horizontally, vertically, or diagonally over one or more men. The jumped men are then removed from the board (before any subsequent jump occurs). This process repeats for as long as there remain men available to be jumped and the player desires. Jumping is optional, there is no requirement to jump. Note that in contrast to checkers, multiple men in a row are jumped and removed as a group.

Filed Under

Categories
Mechanics
Also known as
Philosopher's Football
BGG ratings
33 · geek rating 5.51
BGG data
refreshed Sep 7, 2026