| Seo's Unknown Game |
| Inventor: (?), 2007 (?) |
| Ranks: Seven by Seven (hexagonal) |
| Sowing: Fractured |
| Region: China (?) |
Seo's Unknown Game was first reported by the Chinese mathematician Seo Sanghyeon in 2007: He didn't give the author and the actual name of the game, which has a "leave-a-trail" move mechanism akin to the sowing in mancala games.
Rules
Recommended board for Seo's Unknown Game
The game can be played on a hexagonal board with each side numbering five hexagons, but according to Bill Taylor, a mathematician from New Zealand, a board with a larger size gives a more strategic game.
The board wraps, i.e. the first row is adjacent to last row and so on.
Initially the board is empty.
At his turn, a player places a stone on an empty hexagon, which is orthogonally or diagonally adjacent to his last dropped stone. The two stones are then connected. (Bill Taylor therefor recommends to play Seo's Unkonwn Game with paper and pencil.)
Two diagonally adjacent stones, which were played right after another, cannot be crossed by the opponent.
A player loses if he cannot make a legal move. Draws and ties are not possible.
Variant
A variant permits a player to cross his own links.
External Links
Copyright
© Ralf Gering
Under the CC by-sa 2.5 license.