Catch

Catch is a 1995 game by Reiner Knizia, published in Spielbox magazine.

The game is played on an 8x8 board, initially empty.

Each player has twenty pieces, and there are twenty domino-like tiles shared by both players.

Rules:

• One player drops tiles vertically, and other player drops tiles horizontally
• On his turn, the player drops one tile on two empty squares
• For any enclosed area (either by tiles and/or board edges) with less than four squares, the player drops one friendly piece on each one of those squares
• When there is no valid moves left, the game ends. Wins the player with more friendly stones

The next board shows a final position where the game ended in a 13-13 draw.

This is a pencil & paper game. There's no need for a board to enjoy this game.

I would suggest using an odd-size square board, like 9x9. These boards have an odd number of squares. Since any group of tiles only removes an even number of squares, the remaining pieces will amount to an odd number, making draws impossible.