Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Bashni is a traditional Russian game in the Checkers family. The game is identical to Shashki (Russian Checkers) in the rules regarding movement, capture, and promotion, but every time a piece is captured, it is put at the bottom of the capturing piece or stack.
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Bashni is a traditional Russian game in the Checkers family. The game is identical to Shashki (Russian Checkers) in the rules regarding movement, capture, and promotion, but every time a piece is captured, it is put at the bottom of the capturing piece or stack. If the captured piece is itself on a stack, only the top piece is captured, and the underlying pieces are thus "liberated". This means pieces are never permanently removed, but stacks get steadily higher throughout the game. According to Abstract Games magazine issue 1, the game has a revival in Russia, with tournaments being held in St. Petersburg regularly. Bashni was the inspiration for Laska, Chess world champion Emanuel Lasker's stacking game, that is better known in the west.