Basic Rules

The following text has been copied from the YALi Rules of the game pamphlet, with some modifications to fit the Java version. (I apologize for their dull and repetitive language, as well as their somewhat ambiguous formulations. I had to read this through several times myself before I figured it out.)

Starting position

The object of the game is to get all your eight marbles to the other end of the board as quickly as possible. The first player to do so wins.

The human player gets to start. After that, YALi decides whose move it is. When the YALi board tips over to your side, it's your move. You can keep on moving until the board tips over to the computer's side.

Allowable move

You can move a marble one space or jump over another marble into a space (you can jump over as many marbles as you wish as long as you only jump over one marble at a time). Please see illustration. You can only move straight forwards, or diagonally forwards, but not backwards and not to the side.

The game will indicate all the alternatives by drawing a circle around any marble that can be moved when you place the mouse cursor over it. Once you have selected a marble by holding down the mouse button, all the move alternatives will be marked with little white crosses. Make a move by dragging the marble to a cross.

Jumping

You can jump over your own marbles and your opponent's. Jumping, like ordinary moves, may be forwards or diagonally forwards, but not backwards and not to the side. Please note that in the starting and "goal" areas all balls are allowed to move and jump to the side.

If one of your marbles reaches the opposite end of the board, you can move one of your marbles along the edge of the board towards you; this will change YALi's center of gravity in your favor. Here again, you can move a marble one space or "jump" along the edge as many times as you want -- always remembering you can only jump over one marble at a time into a space.

Rules for Advanced Players

When using the basic rules there is a strategy that always wins. We will not give this strategy away because that would spoil the challenge of discovering it yourself. When you discover the winning strategy you are ready for the advanced game rules. If you play according to these rules, YALi becomes even more strategic and thrilling.

Starting position for advanced players

The starting position is different: players each get three balls along the edge instead of four. You can toggle between "advanced" and "basic" by clicking on the fourth marble, or its hole, before choosing a side.

Only the rules for the marbles along the edge are different. Using the basic rules you may move a marble along the edge when one of your marbles reaches the opposite end of the board. When you play according to the advanced rules you can also move a marble along the edge each time you jump over an opponent's marble. After each jump across an opponent's marble you may move a marble along the edge.

Two exceptions:

• This rule does not apply to marbles in the starting and finishing position.
• If you jump over two or more of your opponent's marbles in one move, you can only move one marble along the edge.

All this means that the marbles along the edge are very important. It is very likely that you can move your three marbles completely towards your side before the game is over. If your three marbles are completely at your side then you may move your opponent's three marbles towards your side of YALi. In doing so, you will change YALi's center of gravity in your favor. So, when you play according to the advanced rules it is very important not to let your opponent jump across your marbles. This gives YALi an extra dimension!