RingGo 80% Go 20% Hex

[(C) 2001 William I. Chang] RingGo is a variant of Go played on a hexagonal lattice with 127 points, 18 of which are removed from play in order to strike a balance between how easy or hard it is to make a group of stones live. The board inherits from Rosette, Medusa, and especially a conversation with Greg Van Patten. Most points have 4 liberties.  While it is harder to make two eyes, it is easier to connect groups so the network may have two eyes.  In this sense, I think the game achieves its goal of combining Go's intricate eye-making tactical play with the connection-making strategy of Hex (though perhaps not enough of the latter).  I'm sure it can be refined and improved if more people tried it.  The board is generalizable to odd-order lattices by repeating the Medusa pattern, although there are lots of other beautiful patterns to choose from.

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          . . o . . o . .     RingGo boards of order 5/7/9, with 55/109/193
           . . . o . . .      points.  The order-11 board has 301 points.
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One might play RingGo on a Go board if one can envision dividing each
square into two triangles with a diagonal line drawn top-left/bottom-right.
(There actually was a commercial version of Hex done this way!)  Or, have
the players sit adjacent and both look toward the *.

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               B

This game should play very differently from other hexagonal Go variants.
I tried and liked it :-)  Any suggestions or comments will be greatly
appreciated!

William Chang   Los Gatos, California   18 April 2001
email: wchang@acm.org, williamichang@hotmail.com
(C) 2001 William I. Chang

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Other Boards:

Rings board

          o o   o o   o o
         o   o o   o o   o
          o o   o o   o o
       o o   o o   o o   o o
      o   o o   o o   o o   o
       o o   o o   o o   o o
    o o   o o   o o   o o   o o
   o   o o   o o   o o   o o   o
    o o   o o   o o   o o   o o
       o o   o o   o o   o o
      o   o o   o o   o o   o
       o o   o o   o o   o o
          o o   o o   o o
         o   o o   o o   o
          o o   o o   o o

Medusa board

          o o o o o o o o
         o   o   o   o   o
        o o o o o o o o o o
       o   o   o   o   o   o
      o o o o o o o o o o o o
     o   o   o   o   o   o   o
    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
   o   o   o   o   o   o   o   o
    o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
     o   o   o   o   o   o   o
      o o o o o o o o o o o o
       o   o   o   o   o   o
        o o o o o o o o o o
         o   o   o   o   o
          o o o o o o o o