Corners — Strategy

Ladders and bridges

A step moves a piece one square; a chain of jumps moves it many. The whole strategy of Corners is to have more jumps than your opponent.

Bridge

A piece you can jump over to go forward is a bridge. Two of your pieces standing next to each other in a line already give a jump: the rear one hops over the front one to the empty square behind it. The more bridges you build along the way to the target, the longer your chains.

Ladder

A ladder is a row of bridges one square apart: c3, e3, g3 or c3, c5, c7. A piece standing right next to the first rung (b3 or c2) runs the whole ladder in one move: b3-d3-f3-h3. Build ladders towards the target: each new piece travels far along it and then becomes a rung for the next one.

Your opponent's pieces are bridges too

You may jump over pieces of either colour. Opponent's pieces in the middle of the board are rungs just like your own. Watch which bridges you leave for your opponent: a piece standing in their way often helps them more than it helps you.

Don't break your own ladder

After a jump, check that you have not removed a rung the rest of your pieces need. Sometimes it is better to step with the last piece of a ladder than to jump with it: the ladder stays whole for one more move.