How to play
Freeze Out is the game of the Amazons, played since 1988, with ducks on a pond that slowly freezes over. Each side has four ducks on a 10 × 10 pond. Yellow moves first.
- Swim: move one of your ducks any number of squares in a straight line, across, up and down or diagonally, like a queen in chess. Ducks can’t pass other ducks or frozen squares.
- Freeze: from where that duck stopped, pick a square in a straight line from it, the same way, and it freezes. It may be the square the duck just left.
- Frozen squares never thaw, so the pond gets smaller every turn.
Winning
If it’s your turn and none of your ducks can swim anywhere, you lose. There are no draws.
Tips
Think of it as claiming space: squares your ducks can reach before your rival’s will be yours at the end. Freeze squares to wall off your rival’s ducks, and don’t let your own get boxed into a corner early. Near the end, count the open squares each side has to itself; the side with more moves left wins.