For the curious, there are rules behind pushing your opponent's marbles with your own. You push your opponent's marbles along the same line, as long as you are pushing with more marbles than he is blocking with. As you cannot push more than three of your own marbles you can block a line by having at least three of your marbles in a line on it. Push 6 of your opponent's marbles off the board and you have won. Simpler than chess, more vexing than blindfold origami.
Games are usually fairly quick but strategy is vitally important.
I had been introduced to the board game by a friend and found it fascinating, but I seldom simultaneously find a partner and the time to play, so I have been looking for a computer version. I had found two, a Java version on the Web and the KDE game which comes with many Linux distros, but I find the AI of both a bit weak. Disappointing, as I am an absolute scrub at the game. Imagine my delight when I found another computer version of the game, and on the Palm platform to boot. You also should know how Abalone is played, as the author merely points you to a search engine to find out the rules.