Dec 1, 2010

Playing Go

This is a photo from a Chinese restaurant near Lisbon where I sometimes eat:

and also a detail of the actual game:

Nov 30, 2010

CHICKEN HEXY

8 hex-hex board initially empty.
Players may drop only isolated non-edge X's in the preliminary phase; 1, 2 or 3 at his own choice.
On any turn, either player may take X and pass.
Normal alternation follows, and X wins by connecting three non-adjacent sides.
If X fails, O wins.

Sample Game:

0: h2 g5 c7, g7, j4 j6, 2nd player takes

: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy       _OO___XX_
|       . . . . . . .         1.   r8   p10
|      . x . . . . . .        2.   l8   k9
|     . . . . . . . . .       3.   n10  j11
|    . . . x . . o . . .      4.   n12  l12
|   . . x . . . . . . . .     5.   p4   p6
|  . . . . x . o x . . . .    6.   n6   m7
| . x . x . . x o . . . . .   7.   o7   p8
|  . . . . . o x . o 4 . .    8.   u11  t10
|   . . . x . . . . 2 3 .     9.   OO resigns
|    . . . . o x . x 1 .     10.
|     . . x . . . . o .      11.
|      . . x o . . . .       12.
|       . . . . . . .        13.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy

Jun 8, 2010

GO-6-MOKU

Rules of 9x9 Go, except that there is no passing and the winner is
whoever gets a 6-in-a-row. Suicide is illegal, except that a 6-row
may be completed in an otherwise liberty-less position. No swap.
Neither dagger move may be used to capture, nor to make a winning
6-line, and they must finish in different groups.

Sample Game:

   _XX____OO_   O has dagger
 1. e5    d4
 2. d5    c5
 3. c6    b6
 4. e3    e4
 5. f4    c4
 6. g5    h5
 7. c7    g3
 8. h6    d2
 9. h4   e2,f3  X has dagger
10. i5:  resign

a b c d e f g h i
. . . . . . . . . 1
. . . o o . . . . 2
. . . . x o o . . 3
. . o o o x . x . 4
. . o x x . x : X 5
. o x . . . . x . 6
. . x . . . . . . 7
. . . . . . . . . 8
. . . . . . . . . 9

Jun 3, 2010

TROMAZONS

On a 8x8, each one starts with 4 stones. A move consists of moving one piece along to a rookwise adjacent empty cell, then placing a wall adjacent to it. 12* moves. A player unable to complete a move loses.

Initial Position

:     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h
|   +-------------------------------+
| 8 |         B           J         |
|   |   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   |
| 7 |                               |
|   |   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   |
| 6 | J                           B |
|   |   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   |
| 5 |                               |
|   |   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   |
| 4 |                               |
|   |   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   |
| 3 | B                           J |
|   |   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   |
| 2 |                               |
|   |   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   |
| 1 |         J           B         |
|   +-------------------------------+
:     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h


Sample Game:

       B            J
    =====================  
1.  ---  b3S     c2W  g3S
2.  c3S  e1W     f7N  f3S
3.  h5N  e2N     d2E  e3E
4.  d3E  g5N     e4S  f6N
5.  f5N  f2S     e6E  b6W
6.  d4E  f4W     d3N  d6S
7.  f5S  c4N     c3N  e5S
8.  b4S  c7S     d7W  b3E
9.  c8E  a4E     a3N  b5W
10. resign

:     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h
|   +-------------------------------+
| 8 |         B |                   |
|   |   +   +   +   +   +---+   +   |  
| 7 |           | J                 |
|   |   +   +---+   +   +---+   +   |
| 6 |   |               |           |
|   |   +   +   +---+   +---+---+---|
| 5 |   | J           J   B         |
|   |   +   +---+   +---+---+   +   |
| 4 | B |           |   |           |
|   |---+---+---+---+---+   +   +   |
| 3 | J     |       |   |           |
|   |   +---+---+   +---+---+---+   |
| 2 |       |       |     B         |
|   |   +   +   +   +   +---+   +   |
| 1 |               |               |
|   +-------------------------------+
:     a   b   c   d   e   f   g   h

Jun 1, 2010

SESQUY

On each turn, each player drops a friendly stone on an empty cell and then
(optionally) moves another friendly stone to an adjacent empty cell.

Sample game:
                                  XX            OO (swapped)
: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy  ================================
|             .              1. l6   ----       m11  ----
|            . .             2. j10  l6 m7      k9   m11 l10
|           . . .            3. j8   j10 i9     h10  k9  j10  
|          . . . .           4. o9   j8 l8      o11  l10 m11
|         . . . . .          5. r10  l8 m9      r12  j10 k11
|        . . . x . .         6. u11  i9 j10     t12  h10 i11
|       . . . . . . x        7. v12  o9 p10     t10  t12 s11
|      . . . . . o O o       8. p12  r10 q11    o9   o11 n10
|     . . . . x o . x ,      9. s9   p10r10     p8   t10 u9
|    . . . x . o . x . .    10. s7   m7n6       r8   u9  t8
|   . . . o o o . x o x .   11. X resigns
|  . . . . . . . x o . x .  12.
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.
: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy 14.

May 18, 2010

OCTATOL

Move sequence 36* with group restriction
(i.e., no two stones dropped in the same group/turn)

TO WIN: join 2 opposite groups, OR make a Y that prevents this.

Initial setup:

|   abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABC
|            X X X O O O        
|         O . . . . . . . X          1
|        O . . . . . . . . X         2
|       O . . . . . . . . . X        3
|      X . . . . . . . . .   O       4
|     X . . . . . . . . . . . O      5
|    X . . . . . . . . . . . . O     6
|   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    7
|  O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X   8
| O . . . . . . . . . . . .   . . X  9
|  O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X  10
|   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   11
|  X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O  12
| X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O 13
|  X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . O  14
|   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   15
|    O . . . . . . . . . . . . X    16
|     O . . . . . . . . . . . X     17
|      O . . . . . . . . . . X      18
|       X . . . . . . . . . O       19
|        X . . . . . . . . O        20
|         X . . . . . . . O         21
|            O O O X X X          
|   abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABC



Game sample:

|   abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABC        OO starts
|            X X X O O O                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|         O x . . . o . . X          1.  ..   ..   ..   o9   l12  r12
|        O . . . . . . . . X         2.  j10  t10  m11  q11  o13  o15
|       O . x . . . o . . . X        3.  o7   p10  s11  r14  n12  i13
|      X . . . . . o . . .   O       4.  u9   j12  p12  s13  j14  n16
|     X . x . . . o . . . . . O      5.  o5   r10  k13  n14  f12  f14
|    X . . . o . . . . . . . . O     6.  f8   n8   o11  l14  q15  t16
|   . x . . . . o o . . . . . . .    7.  j8   g9   p8   g13  p14  u15
|  O . x x x o . x o . . . . . . X   8.  h8   f10  c11  i11  q13  s15
| O . o x o o . o o . . x .   . . X  9.  j6   i9   g11  l10  l16  t14
|  O . x x o x o . o o x . . . . X  10.  d10  k11  d14  g15  m15  w17
|   x x . o x x x x x o . . . . .   11.  m7   h10  w13  f16  i15  i17
|  X . x o . x o o x o . . . . . O  12.  d8   a11  e15  g17  m17  l20
| X . o o o o o o x x x . o . . . O 13.  q3   m9   h14  i19  i21  k17
|  X x x o o x x o o o o . . . . O  14.  k15  h16  j18  x18  m19  h20
|   . o x x o x x x x x o . . . .   15.  m13  f18  j20  l18  u17  u19
|    O . o x x o x . . x o . . X    16.  c7   d12  j16  q17  t18  q19
|     O . x o o x . x * o x . X     17.  c9   c13  c15  n18  r18  v16
|      O o o x o o x o x x x X      18.  e9   p18  v18  k19  v20  s21
|       X . o x x . x o o x O       19.  q1   p4   h18  p20  s19  u21
|        X x o x . o x * x O        20.  i1   i3   g5   c14  w19  r20
|         X o . . . . x o O         21.  OO resigns (x forces at one of the *s)
|            O O O X X X          
|   abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABC


This game is based on Atoll, a game from Mark Steere

May 11, 2010

The Siege of Paris

At 1870 Paris was sieged by Prussian forces and, in four months, took over the city and won one of the n wars between France and Germany. In the UK it inspired the creation of a game called appropriately "The Siege of Paris" (the game appeared also at 1870). Here's an original box (available at the Oxford Digital Library):
Here the initial setup:
and a better view of the board (from BoardGameGeek):
Also, at Oxford Digital Library, here the scan of the original rules (click to zoom):

At BoardGameGeek there's also the rules in text format:

The Siege of Paris

This interesting and amusing game of skill can be played by two, three or five persons; one takes the Garrison or Fort, the others the outside lines.

The positions of the Men are as follows :- The General on the right, the Colonel on the left, the Captains next,and the Lieutenants in the centre ; the placing of the Men in the Garrison is optional.

RULES OF THE GAME
1.-The Besieging party have 36 Men,viz., two Generals two Colonels, four Captains, four Lieutenants. to be equally divided, and to be in two colors, half to move on the Black Squares, and half on the White.
2.-The Besiegers cannot move backwards, Officers or Men.

THE MOVES OF THE BESIEGING PARTY
3.-The Generals move on White or Black Squares-one, two or three Squares at a time. straight, sideways and diagonally.
4.-The Colonel moves on White and Black Squares-one or two squares at a time, straight or sideways.
5.-The Captain moves on White or Black Squares-one square at a time, straight or sideways.
6.-The Lieutenants move diagonally-one or two Squares at a time.
7.-The Men move only diagonally whichever Square they are placed on.
8.-The Besieging party win the game by placing one Officer and three Men in the Garrison, and cannot be taken when inside.

RULES FOR THE GARRISON MEN
9.-The Garrison is occupied by eight Men, viz., one General, one Colonel and six Men, and win the game by taking 24 Men and six Officers.
10.-The Officers and Men of the Garrison cannot be taken, but the Men can be blocked in by the Besieging party, until they are relieved by their Officers.
11.-You are not compelled to take any Man; when any of the Besieging party are taken they must be unsupported, and place your man on the same Square.
12.-The Officers and Men of the Garrison to be Red.

MOVES OF THE GARRISON MEN
13.-The General can move any way-backwards or forwards, straight, sideways or diagonally, and take the same way one or two Squares at a time, either on Black orWhite Squares;
the Colonel moves on Black or White Squares, backwards or forwards, either sideways or straight, and takes the same way;
the Men move diagonally only, three on the white Squares and three on the Black, either backwards or forwards when outside the Garrison

Entered at Stationers' Hall

R.C.Bell provided a patch for solving some problems with the original rules (from BoardGameGeek):

Necessary additional rules and definitions for Siege of Paris. V1.0 May 2009

Win conditions
Garrison player: Capture 6 Besieging Officers and all Besieging Men.
Besieging Player: Having 1 Officer and 3 Men inside the Garrison. (Besieging pieces can not be taken once inside the Garrison.)
Or by blocking with Besieging pieces all legal moves by the Garrison forces. (Supported Besieging pieces can not be captured.)
Alternative win condition for Besieging Player: 1 Officer and 2 Men inside the Garrison.

Draw condition
When less than the pieces required for the chosen win condition remain on the board, then if 1 Besieging piece, or more, are inside the Garrison the game is a draw.

Starting position of Garrison pieces: These pieces may be arranged on the nodes inside the Garrison however the Garrison player wishes.

Turn order: Garrison, White, Garrison, Black, Garrison, White, ...

Alternative forced taking rule: The Besieging player can, if such a move is legal, command the Garrison player to take a Besieging piece.

Fort Gate: Entry to the fort is from the 2 squares (1 black square and 1 white) adjacent to the gates on each side of the fort.

Support: Besieging piece "A" is "supported" when another Besieging piece could legally move onto the square occupied by "A" but for the presence of "A". (Supported Besieging pieces can not be captured.)

Capture: As in chess, by moving the capturing Garrison piece onto the square occupied by the Besieging piece. (Garrison pieces can not be captured.)

---

More information at Jeux Strategie.

May 10, 2010

Hard Lines

Here is an abstract game from c.1861 (more information at GARD). A kind of pattern game with captures and (re)drops. Check the board and the rules:

May 6, 2010

Three old Knight games

At Michel Boutin presentation in the BGS, he mentioned a lot of 19th century board games that were patented in France, UK, Germany and in the US (and most already forgotten). Here are three related games using the Chess Knight, grouped together in a package called Rampant Knights.

These are the board (click to augment)

I found the rules at a Hoyle games edition. Here are the relevant pages:





He also mentioned a board game called "Jeu du Congo" (Game of the Congo) with a hexagonal board:

which was re-edited by Moulin in the French book Jeux de pions d’aujourd'hui. The rules can be found at issue 8 (Winter 2001) of the Abstract Games Magazine.

May 5, 2010

The Game

Fred Horn showed me a picture of an old 1970/80's abstract game called "The Game"

He mentioned the rules orally, as he remembered:

The board starts empty and each piece (each player has five) enters in the player's corner.

On each turn, each player enters a piece off board or moves one friendly piece.

A piece moves [up to?] five cells in orthogonal directions with, at most, two changes of direction [no jumps allowed, it seems].

One piece may land in top of another. The pieces not in the top of a stack become blocked.

A stack can have, at most, three pieces. When a stack of size three is made, the piece in minority is captured.

When all the player's five pieces are on the board, the player cannot stop a friendly piece in his own corner (but it can move the piece thru it during the move sequence).

Wins the player that moves one of his pieces to the enemy's corner.

Any extra information about this game is appreciated.

Games @ BGS 2010

In the Board Games Colloquium (BGS) it is always easy to find new abstract boards and ideas about games. Let me give a sample of this year, in Paris:

Herein you can see a game from Fred Horn, which basically can be seen as a Mancala kit.

These squares can be placed in any order the players like and every mancala board can be built this way. Of course, this game material can be used into many other types of games.

Here you can see Fred Horn (in the left) playing Fianco, another of his games:

A very interesting game is Nonaga, a 2008 invention by Víktor Bautista i Roca:

Visually, this reminds Zèrtz, but in this case, we have a pattern game and the board only changes shape (it does not decrease in size as in Zèrtz).

More info in Manqala.org, Juegos de Ingenio, Pseudolog.

May 1, 2010

Ancient Board Games @ The Louvre

Here are some nice examples of race games from Ancient Egypt:
This was the text related to this game:
The obscure Mehen:
And the more known Senet (at least the text said it was Senet, it seems a version, half-way to the game of Ur):




And finally some old, old dice:



(photos taken in April 2010)

Apr 27, 2010

MOKU-GO

Play and capture as at Go. Passing is forbidden.
The winner is whoever makes a 5-in-a-row.

Sample Game:
abcdefghijklmnopq       _xx___oo_
    . . . . .       1:   e3   h4
   . . . . . .      2:   c5   g5
  . x . O . . .     3:   e7   d4  
 . o . o o x . .    4:   d6   f8  
. x . o o o x . .   5:   g7   h8  
 . x . . x . . .    6:   i7   k7  
  . x x x o . .     7:   j8   i5
   . o o x . .      8:   j6   j4      
    . . . . .       9:   l4   k5
abcdefghijklmnopq  10:   m5   i3 & xx resigns

Apr 23, 2010

Aweet

Aweet: Sudan's mancala (via Viktor Roca, via BBC)

Feb 25, 2010

Searching

Anybody have this little book from the 1970s? I found that Frank Tapson also wrote two other books about abstract games:

  • Take two!: 32 board games for 2 players (1977)
  • Pick a pair!: 30 board games for 2 players (1980)
Any information about games in these books would be appreciated!

Feb 10, 2010

Penguins

This is an adaptation of a 2003 commercial game called "Hey! That's My Fish!" designed by Alvydas Jakeliunas and Günter Cornett (*). This new rule set simplifies the game and makes it more interesting.

Rules: 12* move series on a hex-hex board of size 6. The first 3 moves on each side are to place a penguin on an empty cell. After that, the penguins move queenwise, and are not allowed to land on or pass over any other penguin or blank cell. The two moves in a series must be with different penguins. When a penguin moves it leaves the cell behind blank (eaten). If a player cannot complete a legal move, his opponent wins.

Game Sample:

      ooo       xxx
1.  --  l7    j5  o4    
2.  m2  h5    f7  o4m6
3.  k4  i4    r5  n7
4.  m8  l3    p3  c4
5.  o6  e4    n1  p9
6.  q6  l9    d5  n11
7.  j7  l11   m10 e6
8.  p1  lk10  q10 h1
9.  u6  kg6   t7  f3
10.  s6  c8    r7  i8
11.  RESIGN

Final Position:

:   abcdefghijklmnopqrstu  
:        .   . .           1
:       . . . .   . .      2
:      . x . .   .   .     3
:       o .     .   . .    4
:    .   .     . . .   .   5
:   . .   o . .       o    6
:    . .   .       . x     7
:       . . x .   . . .    8
:      . . . .   .   .     9
:       . . .     .       10
:        . . .     .      11
:   abcdefghijklmnopqrstu


(*) the original rules are: There is a hex board where each cell (fish) valuse 1, 2 or 3 points. Then (1) initially, take turns placing your penguins on tiles with a single fish. (2) move a penguin in a straight line of tiles and pick up the tile you just vacated, (3) if a penguin cannot move, remove it. Check Boardgeek for more information

Jan 4, 2010

12* TRICOLEUR HEXXAGON

Like Hexxagon, except there are 3 colors (a,b,c) which capture each other (a takes b, b takes c, c takes a).

Win by annihilating opponent; or having most pieces in a blocked position.
Players must leave opponent with a non-pass move, if possible.

Sample Game

| abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy  
|       A . . . . . c        1
|      . . . . . . . .       2
|     . . . . B . . . .      3
|    . . . . . . . . . .     4
|   . . c . . . . . a . .    5
|  . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
| b . . . . . . . . . . . B  7
|  . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
|   . . A . . . . . C . .    9
|    . . . . . . . . . .    10
|     . . . . b . . . .     11
|      . . . . . . . .      12
|       C . . . . . a       13
| abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy


    ___ABC___      _____abc____
01. ....   e9      r4     o11
02. e9b8   m3j4    o11q9  g5e7
03. j4g5   g9i11   c7     p4
04. k11    g5d6    q9o7   t6
05. n10    g1i3    t6w7   s9s7
06. n10n8  i13     s5q7   Bs6
07. m8r8   i13m13  w7t8   Br6
08. n10    m13q13  q1     s9
09. n10r10 s13s11  q1n2   t8t10
10. u11    m11o9   Bq5    Ao2
11. q9     v10     t6w7   Cm3
12. i3e4   As9     w7u9   An6
13. s9w9   r10     Cl4    Al6
14. x8     o9m7    An6    q5m5
15. u9s7   f6      o5q7   n6k7
16. j10   p8       j7g7  Bn4        
17. f4h6  d6f4     e7g5  l4n6      
18. c7e9  s11s9    Ah6   Co7        
19. Bf10  s9q7     n6p8  Ai7        
20. j10h8 e9h10    Ag7   q9s11      
21. g13g11 h10l10  Cr12  t10v8      
22. Be11  l10p10   s11u9 r4r6      
23. t10   q11      r6r8  Bl6        
24. Ch10  Aj10     As9   Bj6        
25. Cg9   p10n8    As11  s9o9      
26. j10m9 g9i7     j6f6  Ao9        
27: i7i5 f10f8     Ao11 Bg7    
28: d10  g11j12    h6h4 o11l10
29: Ck11 Ag11      l6n8 r10u11
30: Aj10 l10p10    n8q9 g7i9
31: j10n10 Aj10    s11o11 An8
32: i9g7   p12     q9s11 f4h6
33: k11m9  Ak11    q11o9 Bq11
34: j10n10 k11n12  t10p10 v8s9
35: p12t12 Ao11    w9u11 s9q8
36: Bf10   Ao11    t12p12 Ag7
37: j12f12 f10j10  g7i9  Cn10
38: f12h10 e11h12  Cl10  n10j10
39. resign

Final Position

| abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy  
|       . . . . . . c        1
|      . . . . c . . .       2
|     . . . . c . . . .      3
|    . . b . . b a . . .     4
|   . . b b . b . . . . .    5
|  . . . a . . . . . . . .   6
| . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
|  . . . . . . c c . a . c   8
|   . . . : . c c . . a .    9
|    B . : c c . . . . a    10
|     . A c . . c c c c     11
|      . B . . c c c .      12
|       . . . . . . .       13
| abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy 14