How to play Corners

Race your pieces across the board into the computer's corner. Step, or jump over any piece, again and again.

Corners, known in Russian as Ugolki, is a racing game for two on an ordinary chessboard. Each player starts with a block of pieces packed into one corner, and the goal is simple: move all of them into the opposite corner, the opponent's camp, before the opponent does the same. Nothing is ever captured. The whole game is about speed, and speed comes from jumping.

A piece can step to a neighbouring square, or jump over any piece, yours or the opponent's, and keep jumping as long as there is something to jump over. A good player builds ladders of pieces so that one move can carry a piece half way across the board, while making sure the opponent can't use the same ladder.

How to play on skill.games

In the settings popup choose a difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard or Crazy) and the number of pieces (12 or 9), then press PLAY. You play the white pieces, starting in the bottom-left corner, and you always move first. Your target is the computer's camp in the top-right corner, outlined in blue.

Moving: tap one of your pieces. It lifts, and every square it can reach is marked with a dot: grey dots for steps, blue dots for squares reached by jumping. Tap a dot to move there. You can also drag the piece to its square.
Jumps: a jump chain travels hop by hop, so you can see the route. The computer's last move is shown as a dashed path with a red dot where it ended.
Changing your mind: tap another of your pieces to lift it instead. A tap on a square the piece can't reach is refused with a shake.
Score line: the top of the screen shows how many of each side's pieces are already home, out of 12 or 9.
The camp deadline: from your 30th move the status line warns you if a piece is still in your own camp, counting down the moves left.

The menu button in the top-left corner pauses the game and lets you resume, start a new game or switch the sound on or off. The game is saved at every turn, so an unfinished game can be picked up later with CONTINUE.

At the end the results screen shows how many pieces each side brought home, how the game ended and how many moves you made, with your statistics for that camp size and difficulty.

Rules

The board has 8 x 8 squares. Each player has 12 pieces in a camp of 3 rows by 4 columns (or 9 pieces in a 3 x 3 camp), in opposite corners. White moves first.
A move is either a step or a jump, never both:
a step moves a piece to a neighbouring empty square, left, right, up or down (never diagonally);
a jump moves a piece over a neighbouring piece of either colour, in a straight line across or up and down, to the empty square right behind it. Jumps can be chained in one move, changing direction as you like, and you may stop after any of them.
Pieces are never captured; jumped pieces stay where they are.
The goal is to bring all your pieces into the opponent's camp.
Leave your camp: after your 40th move, any of your pieces still in your own camp loses you the game, and from then on no move may end inside your own camp. This stops a player from blocking the opponent by never leaving home.
Equal moves: if white fills the target first, black still gets its last move. If black fills its target with that move, both used the same number of moves and the game is a draw. If black gets there first, black wins at once.
Move limit: if neither side has finished after 80 moves each, the side with more pieces home wins; equal is a draw.

Strategy tips

Jumps are everything. A step gains one square; a chain of jumps can gain six or more. Before each move, look for the longest useful chain, for you and for your opponent.
Build ladders. Pieces spaced one square apart in a line form a ladder that another piece can jump along. Move pieces so that the ones behind can jump over the ones in front.
Don't build ladders for the opponent. The other side's pieces can jump over yours just as well. A piece standing alone in the middle of the board is a stepping stone for both players.
Bring up the stragglers. The game is decided by the last piece to arrive. Don't race your front pieces home while one piece sits forgotten in the back corner.
Leave home in time. The opponent's pieces arrive in your camp, because it is their target, and they can wall in a piece you left behind. Get every piece out well before move 40.
Fill from the back. In the target camp, move pieces to the far corner first, so the squares near the entrance stay free for the pieces still coming.
Count moves at the end. Near the finish, count how many moves each side needs. As the first player you need to finish strictly sooner, because black gets its last move.

Difficulty levels

Easy: plays a random move about a third of the time; otherwise it takes the single move that gains the most ground.
Normal: always takes the move that gains the most ground right now, aiming at the free squares of its target and getting out of its camp in time, but it never looks further ahead.
Hard: looks two moves ahead (its move and your reply), so it avoids handing you long jumps and sets up its own.
Crazy: looks four moves ahead with the same judgement. It builds ladders and blocks yours, and it will crowd your camp with its arriving pieces, so leave home early.