How to play Petteia

Move your pieces to surround your opponent’s. These are the rules of our modern reconstruction: no complete ancient rulebook survives.

Play now Print rules and boards

Set up

Choose a 6 × 6 board with six pieces per side, or an 8 × 8 board with eight per side. Fill your back rank with your pieces. Light moves first.

1. Move a piece

On your turn, move one piece horizontally or vertically through any number of empty squares. You cannot jump over pieces or move diagonally.

2. Capture by surrounding

Move to trap an enemy piece immediately between two of yours in a row or column. Remove the captured piece. A move may capture in several directions; a whole row of enemy pieces cannot be captured as a block.

Example: close the trap

1. Move the light piece

○↓○●↓

The light piece moves down two empty squares.

2. Remove the captured piece

○×○

The dark piece is trapped and captured.

The move that closes the trap triggers the capture. Neither the edge nor diagonals capture.

Moving between enemy pieces

You may move between two enemy pieces without being captured immediately. A later enemy move that surrounds your piece can still capture it. The board edge does not capture.

3. Win or draw

You win when your opponent has at most one piece left, or has no legal move on their turn.

The game is drawn when the same position occurs three times with the same side to move, or after 100 consecutive moves without a capture (50 turns each).

Clocks and undo

With a time limit, each player loses if their own clock runs out. In computer and shared-screen games, clocks start at New game. Online, they start when the other player joins. Clocks keep running while you view another screen. Undo does not restore time.

Choose how to play

Play the computer at five levels, invite an online opponent by link, or choose Two players on this device and take turns on one screen. Light stays at the bottom in shared-screen games. In online games, each player sees their own pieces at the bottom.

No account is required. Shared-screen games are not added to a personal account’s results.

Read the squares

Columns are A–F or A–H. Ranks are numbered from Light’s side. D2 → D4 means moving from D2 to D4. Square names stay the same when the board is turned.

Three useful habits

Before moving, check what your opponent could capture next.
Use Show my threatened pieces to learn to spot traps.
Start at Beginner level and move up when you feel ready.

Explore the historical evidence and limits of this reconstruction.