Light to move, with 7 light and 8 dark men in the game. Placement is over; from here on a turn means sliding one man to an adjacent free point.
Your job is to close a mill in at most 2 of your own moves, and it has to work against every defence, including the opponent closing a mill of their own.
What the position is about
- sliding phase — Every man is on the board; a move is one step along a line to an empty neighbour.
- double threat — The key move creates two threats at once, and one reply cannot stop both.
Finding the way in
Look first for points where you already have two men on a line with the third point empty, then ask which of them the opponent can cover in one move.
Before you touch a piece, list every forcing move you have and every threat the opponent has; the answer is almost always on that short list.
Show the first move
Start with e3-d3. Played out against the stiffest resistance, the whole line goes: e3-d3 d7-a7 d3-d2xa7.
Solve it and the next puzzle of the same game is one tap away. Your solved puzzles are ticked in the list, in this browser only.