King & Courtesan

Get your king to the other side of the board while safely “hiding” it among your other pieces.

• Designer: Mark Steere, 2022
• King & Courtesan at BoardGameGeek
• King & Courtesan at Mark Steere Games

King and Courtesan is a two-player game played on a 6×6 (or 7×7…) checkerboard rotated 45 degrees. So the first “row” is a single square, the “home square”. All 36 squares are in the game.

A red “king” (stack of two like-colored checkers) occupies Red’s home square. Rows 2, 3, 4 and 5 are filled with 14 “courtesans” (singletons). Blue mirrors Red’s setup across the board. A 7×7 checkerboard would have the first 6 rows filled, etc.

You win by getting your king into the enemy home square, or killing the enemy king. Draws cannot occur.

Players make one move per turn, starting with Red. There are three possible types of moves, explained below. Players will always have a move available, and must make one. Passing is not allowed.

• Non-capturing moves: Kings and courtesans can move to an adjacent, unoccupied square in any of the three forward directions.
• Capturing moves: Kings and courtesans can move to an adjacent, enemy occupied square in any of eight directions, capturing the enemy king or courtesan by replacement.
• Exchange move: You can transfer the top checker of your king onto an adjacent, friendly courtesan in any of the three forward directions, thus exchanging king and courtesan.

• Current engine version: 20230702 (2023-07-02). On Abstract Play since 2023-07-02.