Fairwell

In one twenty-piece game, something odd happened. Red's 9 was chasing Blue's 6 toward the edge of the board. A 9 beats a 6, so if the 9 ever caught it, the 6 would go home. But every time the 9 got close, the 6 stepped sideways. Then back. Then sideways again. Then back.

Red's 9 followed every time. Sideways, back. Sideways, back. The two pieces danced across the same two squares.

"This could go on all night," groaned Bluster.

"It won't," said Fairwell, and raised his hoof. "There's a rule for exactly this."

He explained it carefully, because rules are easier to trust when you know why they exist. "A piece may move back and forth between the same two squares only three times in a row. After that, it has to go somewhere new. Without that rule, a player who was losing could stop the game from ever ending, just by shuffling one piece forever. Nobody would win, and nobody would lose. There would just be no game."

"So Blue's 6 has to go somewhere else soon?" asked Matchley.

"Exactly," said Fairwell. "And when it does, our 9 will be waiting."

Blue's 6 stepped sideways one more time, and then it was stuck. It had used up its back-and-forth. It couldn't step back again, so it moved forward instead, into open ground, and Red's 9 sent it home.

The Blue player didn't seem upset at all. "I knew it was coming," they said. "I was buying time so my other pieces could get into place."