Altairian Checkers, recently decoded from SETI transmissions, is a checkers/draughts type game played on a radial hex board with four hexes to a side. Each player starts with ten pieces called Pods arranged on opposite sides of the board.
 
A Pod moves by orbiting a neighboring piece of either color, called the pivot. A Pod can orbit around a pivot through any number of empty spaces or through outer space (off the board) provided it comes to rest on an empty space on the board. It must land in a space adjacent to the pivot in the forward direction. A Pod cannot capture.
 
When a Pod reaches the shaded area on the far side of the board, it promotes to a War Pod. A War Pod moves like a regular Pod, with the exception that it can land on any orbital space (i.e., forward progress is not required), and it captures any enemy piece that it orbits around.
 
When a War Pod returns to the shaded area on its own side of the board, it promotes to a Death Pod. A Death Pod moves like a War Pod, with the added condition that it captures any enemy piece that it lands next to.
 
Because pieces must have pivots to move, an isolated piece is frozen. The game is won by scattering the enemy fleet and leaving it with no move. A player who has no pieces or no moves at the start of a turn loses.
 
Two training variants are included. In the first, the object is to promote a Pod into a War Pod. This variant focuses attention on the "civilian phase" of Altairain Checkers in which Pods maneuver for position without overtly hostile intent. This phase is characterized by the tactics of stalemate and zugzwang. In the second training variant, the object is to promote a War Pod into a Death Pod. This variant adds the "battle" phase to the "civilian" phase and focuses attention on gaining the edge in battle through construction of an ultimate weapon.
 
Both of the training variants are virtually draw-proof. Full Altairian Checkers usually draws when both players have an equal number of Death Pods and no other pieces. This is a draw by mutually assured destruction.