An abstract strategy game is a board game with perfect information, no chance, and (usually) two players or teams. Many of the world's classic board games, including checkers, chess, go, and mancala, fit into this category. Play is sometimes said to resemble a series of puzzles the players pose to each other. A board game is a game played with counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a board (a premarked surface, usually specific to that game). ... Perfect information is a term used in economics and game theory to describe a state of complete knowledge about the actions of other players that is instantaneously updated as new information arises. ... starting position on a 10×10 draughts board Draughts, also known as checkers, is a group of mental sport board games between two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over the enemys pieces. ... Chess is an abstract strategy board game and mental sport for two players. ... Go is a board game for two players. ... A foldable, wooden Mancala board Mancala is a family of board games played around the world, sometimes called sowing games or count and capture games, which comes from the general gameplay. ... A puzzle is a problem or enigma that challenges ingenuity. ...

What counts as an abstract strategy game?

A purist's definition of an abstract strategy game requires that it cannot have random elements or hidden information. In practice, however, many games are commonly classed as abstract strategy games which do not strictly meet these criteria. Games such as Backgammon, Octiles, Can't Stop, Sequence and Mentalis have all been described as “abstract strategy” at some point or another, despite having a luck or bluffing element. The pragmatic definition seems to be that if a game is strategic and is abstract, the term “abstract strategy” should be applicable—this definition is unappealing to purists because the broader class of games falls clearly outside the scope of the techniques of theoretical analysis appropriate to “pure” abstract strategy games. Backgammon is a board game for two players in which pieces are moved according to the roll of dice and the winner is the first to remove all his pieces from the board. ... Cant Stop is a board game for up to four players. ... Sequence is a board-and-card game distributed by Parker. ... A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. ...

The analysis of a “pure” abstract strategy game tends to fall under combinatorial game theory. Abstract strategy games with hidden information, bluffing or simultaneous-move elements are better served by Von Neumann-Morgenstern game theory, while those with a component of luck may require probability theory incorporated into either of the above. Combinatorial game theory (CGT) is a mathematical theory that only studies two-player games which have a position which the players take turns changing in defined ways or moves to achieve a defined winning condition. ... Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics and economics that studies situations where players choose different actions in an attempt to maximize their returns. ... Probability theory is the mathematical study of phenomena characterized by randomness or uncertainty. ...

In some abstract strategy games there are multiple starting positions of which it is suggested that one be randomly determined: at the very least, in all conventional abstract strategy games a starting player needs to be chosen by some means extrinsic to the game. Some games, such as Arimaa and DVONN, have the players build the starting position in a separate initial phase which itself conforms strictly to abstract strategy game principles. However, most people would consider that although one is then starting each game from a different position, the game itself still has no luck element. Indeed, Bobby Fischer promoted randomizing the starting position of a game of chess in order to increase the game's dependence on thinking at the board, which is surely the chief object of an abstract strategy design. Arimaa is a two-player board game invented by Omar Syed, a computer engineer trained in artificial intelligence. ... Dvonn is a two-player strategy board game in which the objective is to accumulate pieces in stacks. ... Image:BobbyFischer. ... One of 960 possible starting positions (#177). ...

Favorite abstract strategy games

According to two prominent websites which collect user ratings for board games, these are the abstract strategy games highest rated by players (as of December 2006): December 2006 is the twelfth and final month of the year and will begin in 2 day(s). ...

This table uses BoardGameGeek's categorization of 'abstract strategy game', which is not necessarily consistently applied. For this reason games which support more than two players have been marked with * and games which violate some other part of the strict definition (such as having a random element or hidden information) have been marked with **. Screenshot of the BoardGameGeek entry for Settlers of Catan. ... The Internet Top 100 Games List is a ranked list of non-computer games, mostly board and card games. ... Yinsh is the fifth game to be released in the Gipf project by game designer Kris Burm. ... Through the Desert is a board game by Reiner Knizia based on the placement of camels on a hexagon-based board. ... Go is a board game for two players. ... Through the Desert is a board game by Reiner Knizia based on the placement of camels on a hexagon-based board. ... Ingenious is a board game designed by Reiner Knizia and published in 2004 by Kosmos under its German title Einfach Genial. ... Dvonn is a two-player strategy board game in which the objective is to accumulate pieces in stacks. ... Hive is an abstract strategy game for two players, designed by John Yianni and published in 2001 by Gen Four Two. ... Ingenious is a board game designed by Reiner Knizia and published in 2004 by Kosmos under its German title Einfach Genial. ... Go is a board game for two players. ... ZÈRTZ is the third game in the GIPF project of six abstract strategy games. ... Dvonn is a two-player strategy board game in which the objective is to accumulate pieces in stacks. ... Blokus is an abstract strategy board game for two to four players, invented by Bernard Tavitian and published in 2000 by the Sekkoia company. ... Blokus is an abstract strategy board game for two to four players, invented by Bernard Tavitian and published in 2000 by the Sekkoia company. ... Take it Easy a spatial bingo game from Ravensburger. ... Hive is an abstract strategy game for two players, designed by John Yianni and published in 2001 by Gen Four Two. ... ZÈRTZ is the third game in the GIPF project of six abstract strategy games. ... Zendo is a game of inductive logic designed by Kory Heath in which one player (the Master) creates a rule for structures (koans) to follow, and the other players (the Students) try to discover it by building and studying various koans which follow or break the rule. ... Zendo is a game of inductive logic designed by Kory Heath in which one player (the Master) creates a rule for structures (koans) to follow, and the other players (the Students) try to discover it by building and studying various koans which follow or break the rule. ... Blokus is an abstract strategy board game for two to four players, invented by Bernard Tavitian and published in 2000 by the Sekkoia company. ... Gipf is a board game by Kris Burm, the first in his so-called Gipf project. ... Yinsh is the fifth game to be released in the Gipf project by game designer Kris Burm. ... Trax is a two-player abstract strategy game, invented by David Smith in 1980. ... A Gamut of Games, written by Sid Sackson and first published in 1969, contains rules for a large number of pencil-and-paper, card, and board games; many of the games in the book had never before been published. ... Chess is an abstract strategy board game and mental sport for two players. ... PÜNCT is a two-player strategy board game. ... Hex is a board game played on a hexagonal grid, theoretically of any size and several possible shapes, but traditionally as a 11x11 rhombus. ... Chess is an abstract strategy board game and mental sport for two players. ... Focus is an abstract strategy board game, designed by Sid Sackson and published in 1964 by Kosmos. ... A Gamut of Games, written by Sid Sackson and first published in 1969, contains rules for a large number of pencil-and-paper, card, and board games; many of the games in the book had never before been published. ... The Very Clever Pipe Game is a card game produced by Cheapass Games. ... TwixT is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Alex Randolph. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Shogi ), or Japanese chess, is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan. ...

List of abstract strategy games

Chess and chess-like games

• Chaturanga
• Western Chess
• Janggi (Korean Chess)
• Makruk (Thai Chess)
• Shogi (Japanese Chess)
  • Shogi variants
• Xiangqi (Chinese Chess)
• Other Chess-like games

Chaturanga. ... Chess is an abstract strategy board game and mental sport for two players. ... Janggi is one of a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Japanese Shogi, and the very similar Chinese Xiangqi are also members. ... Makruk, starting position. ... Shogi ), or Japanese chess, is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan. ... Many variants of shogi have been developed over the years, ranging from some of the largest chess-like games ever played, to some of the smallest. ... Xiangqi (Chinese: 象棋; Pinyin: xiàngqí; Wade-Giles: hsiang4-chi2; ), is a two-player Chinese game in a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Indian chaturanga, Japanese shogi, and the more similar Korean janggi are also members. ... A chess variant is a game derived from, related to or similar to chess in at least one respect. ...

Paper and pencil games

• Dots and Boxes
• Sprouts
• Noughts and Crosses, also known as Tic-Tac-Toe

Paper and pencil games are games that can be played solely with pencil and paper. ... Dots and Boxes (also known as Boxes, Squares, Paddocks, Square-it, Dots and Dashes, Dots, or, simply, the Dot Game) is a pencil and paper game for two players (or sometimes, more than two). ... Sprouts is a pencil-and-paper game with interesting mathematical properties. ... Tic-tac-toe, also called noughts and crosses and many other names, is a paper and pencil game between two players, O and X, who alternate in marking the spaces in a 3×3 board. ...

"n-in-a-row" games

Those marked † can conveniently be played as paper and pencil games.

• Boku
• Check Lines
• Connect Four †
• Connect6 †
• Gomoku †
• Morris - Three, Six and Nine Men's Morris
• Neutreeko
• Pente, a slight simplification of Ninuki-renju
• Score Four
• Qubic
• Renju †
• Teeko

Boku is a Mental sport played on a perforated hexagonal board. ... Tic-tac-toe, also called noughts and crosses and many other names, is a paper and pencil game between two players, O and X, who alternate in marking the spaces in a 3×3 board. ... Connect Four (also known as Plot Four) is a two-player board game in which the objective is to be the first to get four of ones own discs in a line. ... Connect6, introduced by Professor I-Chen Wu at Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, is a fair and highly complex game. ... Gomoku, go-moku, or gobang (Japanese: 五目並べ, Gomoku Narabe, five points) is an abstract strategy board game. ... Three Mens Morris is played on a three-line by three-line board, and is a game of position. ... Six Mens Morris is a board game popular during the Middle Ages in England, France and Italy. ... Nine Mens Morris is a two-player strategy board game with a long history in Europe. ... Pente is a board game created in 1978 by Gary Gabrel. ... Renju (Japanese: 連珠) is the professional variant of Gomoku, a Japanese board game. ... a selfmade Qubic game Qubic is a four-in-a-row game played in a 4×4×4 matrix. ... Renju (Japanese: 連珠) is the professional variant of Gomoku, a Japanese board game. ... Teeko is an abstract strategy game invented by John Scarne in 1945 and rereleased in refined form in 1952 and again in the 1960s. ...

Other games

Those marked † can conveniently be played as paper and pencil games.

• Abalone
• Alak
• Alquerque
• The Game of the Amazons (also known as Amazons)
• Andantino †
• Arimaa
• Ataxx
• Bagha-Chall
• Blokus
• Breakthrough
• Cathedral
• Chinese Checkers
• Crossings
• Crosstrack
• Death Stacks
• Draughts (also known as Checkers)
• Entropy (1977 and 1994 games)
• Epaminondas
• Fanorona
• Fitchneal
• Five Field Kono
• Focus
• Fox games, such as Foxes and geese
• The GIPF project games:
  1. GIPF
  2. TAMSK
  3. ZÈRTZ
  4. DVONN
  5. YINSH
  6. PÜNCT
• Go
• Gobblet
• Gonnect
• Gounki
• Halma
• Havannah †
• Hex †
• Hexdame
• Hijara
• Hive
• Hnefatafl
• Jungle
• Kensington
• L Game
• Lasca
• Lines of Action
• Lotus
• Mak-yek
• Mancala and related games
• Martian Chess (for two to six players)
• Mozaic
• Nim †
• Orbit
• Pentago
• Phutball
• Pylos
• Quarto
• Quoridor
• Reversi, also known as Othello
• Rhumb Line
• Rubik's Checkers Challenge
• Rubik's Eclipse
• Rubik's Illusion
• Rubik's Infinity
• Rubik's Magic Strategy Game
• Rhythmomachy
• Spangles
• Spectrangle
• Tafl games
• Tanbo
• Terrace
• Three Musketeers
• Thud
• Trax †
• Turnabout
• TwixT († with modified rules)
• Y †

Abalone is a two-player strategy board game which can be quaintly summarized as sumo wrestling with marbles, as the objective is to push opposing marbles off the edge of the board. ... Alak is a close relative of the board game Go played on a one_dimensional board. It was originally described in A. K. Dewdneys 1984 book The Planiverse; in 2001, Alan Baljeu modified the game to its present state. ... Alquerque (also known as Quirkat) is a board game that is thought to have originated in the Middle East. ... The Game of the Amazons (in Spanish, El Juego de las Amazonas; often called Amazons for short) is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented in 1988 by Walter Zamkauskas of Argentina. ... Andantino is a two-player dynamic board game of abstract strategy, invented by David Smith. ... Arimaa is a two-player board game invented by Omar Syed, a computer engineer trained in artificial intelligence. ... Ataxx screenshot Ataxx is a board game which first appeared in 1990 as an arcade video game by The Leland Corporation. ... Bagha-Chall (meaning Change of Tigers) is a strategic, two-player board game that originates in Nepal. ... Blokus is an abstract strategy board game for two to four players, invented by Bernard Tavitian and published in 2000 by the Sekkoia company. ... Initial position. ... Cathedral is a two-player abstract strategy board game based around a conflict between two factions (dark and light) for territorial supremacy within the bounds of a mediaeval city. ... Chinese checkers Chinese checkers is a board game that can be played by two to six people. ... Crossings is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Robert Abbott. ... Death Stacks is an abstract strategy board game for two players invented by the science fiction author Stephen Euin Cobb. ... Draughts (drafts or //) (British English) or checkers (American English) is a group of abstract strategy board games between two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over the enemys pieces. ... There are at least two board games known under the name Entropy, one invented by Eric Solomon and published in 1977, the other by Augustine Carreno in 1994. ... Epaminondas is an abstract strategy board game invented by Robert Abbott and originally introduced in Sid Sacksons A Gamut of Games as Crossings. ... Fanorona is a board game indigenous to Madagascar and derived from Alquerque. ... Five Field Kono is a board game played in Korea with the board shown below, B----B----B----B----B | | | | | | | | | | B----*----*----*----B | | | | | | | | | | *----*----*----*----* | | | | | | | | | | W----*----*----*----W | | | | | | | | | | W----W----W----W----W B and W indicate the counters of the players playing black and white respectively. ... Focus is an abstract strategy board game, designed by Sid Sackson and published in 1964 by Kosmos. ... The Fox games are a category of board games where one player is the fox and tries to eat the geese/sheep, and the other player directs the geese/sheep and attempts to trap the fox, or reach a destination on the board. ... The Gipf Project is an award-winning series of six abstract strategy games by designer Kris Burm. ... Gipf is a board game by Kris Burm, the first in his so-called Gipf project. ... Tamsk is the second board game in the Gipf project. ... ZÈRTZ is the third game in the GIPF project of six abstract strategy games. ... Dvonn is a two-player strategy board game in which the objective is to accumulate pieces in stacks. ... Yinsh is the fifth game to be released in the Gipf project by game designer Kris Burm. ... PÜNCT is a two-player strategy board game. ... Go is a board game for two players. ... Gobblet is a board game for two players designed by Thierry Denoual and published in 2001 by Gigamic and Blue Orange Games. ... Gonnect is a board game, which could be described as the lovechild of Go and Hex. ... Gounki is an abstract strategy game in which pieces can combine and disperse to affect their movement possibilities. ... Halma (from the Greek word meaning jump) is a board game invented in 1883 by an English surgeon, Howard Monks. ... Havannah is an abstract strategy board game invented by Christian Freeling. ... Hex is a board game played on a hexagonal grid, usually in the shape of a 10 by 10 or a 11 by 11 rhombus. ... Hive is an abstract strategy game for two players, designed by John Yianni and published in 2001 by Gen Four Two. ... Tafl games are a family of ancient Germanic board games played on a checkered board with two teams of uneven strength. ... Jungle. ... Kensington is a board game devised by Brian Taylor and Peter Forbes in 1979, named after an affluent borough of London. ... The L game was invented by Edward De Bono, intended to illustrate lateral thinking. ... Lasca (also called Laska or Laskers) is a draughts variant, invented by the second World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker (1868–1941). ... Lines of Action is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Claude Soucie. ... Lotus is a board game for two to four players developed by Dominique Teller and published by Ravensburger Spieleverlag. ... Mak-yek is a board game played in Siam and Malaysia (under the name Apit-sodok) on an 8 by 8 board by two players each having sixteen pieces or men. ... A foldable, wooden Mancala board Mancala is a family of board games played around the world, sometimes called sowing games or count and capture games, which comes from the general gameplay. ... Games in the mancala family include: // Popular games The most widely played games are probably: Oware, the national game of Ghana, is also known by Warri, Ayo, Awele, Awari, Ouril, and other names. ... Martian Chess is an abstract strategy game for two to six players invented by Andrew Looney. ... Nim is a two-player mathematical game of strategy in which players take turns removing objects from distinct heaps. ... Pentago is a Swedish board game in which two players compete to first get five balls in a row. ... Phutball (short for philosophers football) is a two-player board game described in Elwyn Berlekamp, John Conway, and Richard Guys Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays. ... Pylos is a board game invented by David G. Royffe and published by Gigamic. ... Quarto is a board game for two players invented by Blaise Müller. ... Quoridor is a modern two-player abstract strategy game. ... Reversi and Othello are names for a strategic boardgame which involves play by two parties on an eight-by-eight square grid with pieces that have two distinct sides. ... Ernő Rubik (born July 13, 1944) is a Hungarian inventor, sculptor and professor of architecture. ... Rhythmomachy (or Rythmomachy, or Rithmomachia, or Arithmomachia, or sundry other variants; also the Philosophers Game) is an early European mathematical board game. ... Hnefatafl (from www. ... This article is about a board game. ... Terrace is a strategy game played on a three dimensional board. ... Three Musketeers is an abstract strategy board game by Haar Hoolim. ... Thud is a board game devised by Trevor Truran and first published in 2002, inspired by the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett. ... Trax is a two-player abstract strategy game, invented by David Smith in 1980. ... TwixT is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Alex Randolph. ... Y is an abstract strategy board game invented by Craige Schensted (now Ea Ea) and Charles Titus. ...

See also

• Mind Sports Olympiad

Categories: Game stubs | Organization stubs | Organizations ...

External links

• Joao P. Neto's World of Abstract Games
• Mark Thompson's Abstract Games page
• "Defining the Abstract" by J. Mark Thompson
• The University of Alberta Games Group
• Glenn Rhoads' Assorted Fun page
• David Eppstein's CGT page
• AbstractStrategy.com