Saturday, November 27, 2010

x's and lines

(Is this game original? I myself may have come up with something similar earlier.)

This is a game for 2 players.

You have an n-by-n grid drawn on paper (as almost always).
n should be >= 8, I suggest.

In the first part of the game, the players take turns placing a total of n x's into the grid, where one x is placed in an empty square of the grid each move.

In the second part of the game, players take turns. On a turn, a player draws a line (through the centers of the intervening squares) either up, right, down, or left from the last x drawn to by the other player. The (maybe bending) line may take at most one right-angle turn. And it must end at an x not drawn to/from yet. (Player 1 draws from any of the x's on her/his first move.) (What I mean by "the line may take at most one right angle turn" is that the x's will either be connected by a single straight line-segment {if both x's are in the same row or column} or they will be connected by two perpendicular, connected straight line-segments {if the x's are in both a different row and a different column}).

Lines can't pass through a line already drawn in the second part of the game. And the line cannot pass through an x on its way between two other x's during a move. The line may, though, share a corner with, or coincide partially with (both line-segments horizontal or both line-segments vertical), a line drawn previously during the second part of the game.

A player must move if it is possible.

The last player able to move LOSES.

(Note: Unlike some other games I have posted recently, more than one x or no x's at all may be in any row or column.)

Thanks,
Leroy Quet

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