Points of the Game.—To Block, to Force, and to Make a Line.
(a) To block is to get a peg on each side of one of your adversary’s: this, if an ordinary peg, is its capture, and it is immediately removed off the board.
105. Block.
Example.—Black having a peg in 1, and White playing a peg in 2, Black captures that peg by playing a peg in 3; but White having a peg in 4 can capture Black’s peg in 3 by playing another peg in 2; or White having pegs in 1, 10, and 24, and Black a peg in 9 could block Black’s peg by playing peg 24 either into 17 or 16.
But to block the King peg, the other holes surrounding him must be filled, though it is of no consequence by whose pegs. To block the King peg is game. His only means of escape is by immediately capturing one of the pegs blocking; if he cannot do this, and cannot move, the game is over.
Example.—Black’s King peg being in 3, and White having a peg in 4, is not blocked by White placing a peg in 2, because the hole 11 is unoccupied. Or supposing Black to occupy 11 (King peg), and 3, and White 2, 12 and 19, the game would be lost to Black by White playing 2 to 10, which blocks the King; but if Black had a peg in 17, 16 or 1 to immediately play into 9 he would capture 10, which is one of the blocking pegs, and so liberate the King peg. The other blocking peg is 12. Capturing 19 would be of no avail, neither would moving his own peg 3.
(b) To force is to get 2 pegs on a line with one of your adversary’s, in which case you force him to move that peg to the first vacant hole on its square, in whichever direction it may occur, and in the event of there not being one vacant on its square, to whichever square has the nearest.
Example.—Black, occupying hole 1, could force White from hole 3 by placing a peg in hole 2 in which case White’s peg 3 would have to move to 4; or by occupying holes 11 and 19, when White would have 2 holes at equal distance—4 and 2; and could move into either unless the forcer gave the preference.
If the King peg be forced, a peg is thereby gained from the reserve which is placed in the hole vacated by the King.