Questions tagged [board-games]

A board game is a game that involves counters or pieces moved or placed on a "board" according to a fixed set of rules.

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Count Pips Like a Backgammon Boss

In Backgammon, the pip count of a position is the total distance your happy stars need to travel in order to reach your home board and complete the bear-off. Pips refer to the number of dots on your ...
happystar's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
3k views

Two-Move Chess Game

Consider a standard game of chess. We make the following modification: on a turn, if a player makes a move which neither captures a piece nor puts their opponent’s king in check, then they may make a ...
godlification's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
199 views

King 2 men, but don't kill a man

I found mention of this challenge in a Science paper called "Checkers is solved" from 1996, but no example was given. Beginning at starting position, play moves according to rules of ...
Noone AtAll's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
165 views

Find the best play on each board

Each of these boards has a unique best play. What is it?
empyreu's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
161 views

Are there forced cycles in this game?

Players: Black and White. A crosscut is a 2x2 subgrid with two white and two black stones, in which like-colored stones are diagonally adjacent (and opposite-colored stones are orthogonally adjacent)....
Alek Erickson's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
340 views

Are infinite loops possible in the game Prodway?

I'd like to know if infinitely repeating sequences of moves (i.e. cycles) are possible in the following game: Prodway is a game for two players (Black and White) that is played on an initially empty ...
Luis's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
413 views

Counting Tic-Tac-Toe draws on larger grids

Alice and Bob play a game of Tic-Tac-Toe on a grid of size $N \times M$. The rules of this game are the same as the original Tic-Tac-Toe: Alice plays first (white); Bob plays second (black). On each ...
Bubbler's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
419 views

Are infinite loops possible in the game Reneo?

I'd like to know if infinitely repeating sequences of moves (i.e. cycles) are possible in the following game: Reneo is a game for two players (Black and White) that is played on an initially empty ...
Luis's user avatar
  • 113
7 votes
0 answers
156 views

Logic and geometry problem 2

My question is whether or not a deadlock can occur in Crisscross. A deadlock is defined as a position, an arrangement of checkers, in which the board has been filled but neither player has won. ...
Mark Steere's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
305 views

A Drink and a Game

I saw this text chain on my friend's phone. What was ordered to drink? To answer, you'll need to figure out the name of the game they were playing. I'm sure you've heard of it. There are a few subtle ...
Amoz's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
381 views

Logic and geometry problem

My question is whether or not cycles can occur in the abstract game, Clearcut. Clearcut A few smart guys (and me) have been trying to either find a cycle or prove that one can't happen. Ten days ...
Mark Steere's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
112 views

Zigzag nim game [duplicate]

I'm trying to figure out a strategy for the following nim: here the rules are that you choose a new position on the path $1$,$2$, or $3$ nodes forward. The other player does the same. Neither player ...
Louie's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
148 views

Trippples - optimisation [closed]

Trippples Introduction Tripples (BGG) is a board game from the 1970s. It is played on an 8x8 grid, and each tile on that grid (except the corner starting tiles, and four blank tiles) contain three ...
simonalexander2005's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
285 views

I ask you to find a game, then a place in the game and finally make a screenshot

Clues to find the game: I drive a lot. Everything I eat tends to poison me. Passion neon. Do you like kombucha? Clue for location in the game: boys, boys, boys (I’m looking for a good time) Clue ...
Lali's user avatar
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15 votes
1 answer
2k views

Riley Riddle in the game

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #7: Board games. My first can hold flags (No matches). My second lasts three months (No matches). My last is your attention (1 accurate match). My ...
Scratch---Cat's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
573 views

"Guess Where?" - a GCHQ word association puzzle (board game edition)

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #7: Board games. Instructions (adapted from The GCHQ Puzzle Book (2016) and the introductory puzzle here on Puzzling Stack Exchange): The words in ...
Stiv's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
136 views

Circuissonne Diagrams

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #7: Board games. And also, this puzzle is also a parody of XKCD's 730. We're starting a project on Explain XKCD (link currently not available) to ...
Scratch---Cat's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
199 views

Trochaic hexameter

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #7: Board games. I was visiting the club yesterday, and I saw some people playing a weird word game araound a table. They use Scrabble-like tiles ...
Scratch---Cat's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
201 views

Themed Boggle Grids Continued

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #7: Board games. Click here for the rules. Here are some more themed Boggle grids that I created or discovered. Some of these may be references to ...
Scratch---Cat's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
253 views

Farthest From Backgammon

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #7: Board games. The famous Backgammon game can be seen as being played on a number axis with one player on the non-negative side (from 0 to 25) and ...
Scratch---Cat's user avatar
28 votes
1 answer
2k views

The body in the cellar

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #7: Board games. On a cold December night in 1992, several guests have arrived at a mansion in Beverly, Massachusetts. An hour later, the body of ...
Amoz's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
226 views

From white to black

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #7: Board games. Place a knight on each of the white squares on the 8x8 chessboard. That would make a total of 32 knights. Is it possible to use a ...
Scratch---Cat's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

Sixty-three knights on a chessboard

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #7: Board games. If we're using rooks, then this would be equivalent to a classic "fifteen puzzle" though on a larger grid. This time we'...
Scratch---Cat's user avatar
7 votes
5 answers
932 views

Colorblind Mastermind

This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #7: Board games. Inspired by the incident, I created a variant of Mastermind, although it wasn't actually intended for colorblind people. The main ...
Scratch---Cat's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
576 views

What is this number square puzzle called? (10x10 grid with numbers 1-100)

Does anyone happen to know a name for this traditional(?) number square puzzle/game? The puzzle has a board of 10x10 squares that are initially empty. The player starts the game by entering the number ...
MJV's user avatar
  • 111
6 votes
1 answer
456 views

Cannot solve Ubongo Extreme B37 yellow puzzle

How can we solve the yellow B-37 puzzle? Ubongo Extreme rules recap: Rearrange the pieces so they form the shape given on the card, with no holes and no overlap. Flipping pieces over (to turn a piece ...
return true's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
423 views

A Key Game of Battleship

What two relevant words are encoded in this game? The stuff in the trays doesn't matter too much No special knowledge or programming needed. Hint:
Amoz's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
467 views

Pit of Radiance - A study on board games

(Click to enlarge) (Author Note) A while ago I made some puzzles for a now defunct puzzle hunt project, here's one of them. The answer to this (and most other puzzles of said hunt) is a single word. ...
Auribouros's user avatar
  • 6,581
8 votes
1 answer
253 views

Smallest number of moves to reach a "reverse checkers" position

A "reverse checkers" position is a position where every piece for one player is on one colour and every piece for the other player is on the other colour. Consider this position, for example:...
double-beep's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
195 views

Police and Thieves

I played this game when I was young, but cannot find it online. It is played on a checkers board (e.g. the black squares of a chess board) between two players P and T. The game goes as follows: P ...
user21820's user avatar
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7 votes
0 answers
294 views

Who wins the game of "Sticky Gomoku" on an infinite board?

This is a Gomoku like game, played by two players with Go pieces (black and white stones) on an infinite (in all four directions) Go board. Rules Four in a row: players alternate turns placing a ...
Eric's user avatar
  • 6,458
3 votes
1 answer
222 views

What is the most STAMINA-efficient strategy to escape the well?

You are roleplaying as an adventurer under the direction of a sadistic DM who has just thrown your character down a well. In order to escape, you have unlimited chances at a STAMINA check, difficulty ...
Feryll's user avatar
  • 2,359
2 votes
1 answer
319 views

A solitaire Blokus problem on a rectangular board

Rules As in Blokus, you have a total of 21 pieces (every piece from monomino to pentomino) in hand: All of these polyominoes are free, this means that you can rotate or flip them as you wish before ...
sunnyshi's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
155 views

Peg Solitaire variant: from 48 on an 8x8 board

Looking at David Ahl's Basic Computer Games, one of the programs that caught my eye was One Check. It's like Peg Solitaire, which I've figured, but it's on an 8x8 board with the 4x4 inner bit hollowed ...
aschultz's user avatar
  • 123
6 votes
3 answers
545 views

Only kings and horses

This is the fourth entry in my decentralised or "Swiss" chess mini series. See bottom for a recap of the modified rules of Swiss chess. Enough warm up! It is time for a proper Swiss chess ...
Albert.Lang's user avatar
  • 5,217
17 votes
5 answers
1k views

Shooting them blanks (double optimization task)

I don't know the answer, I just state that this problem could be interesting. Best estimate gets the tick. "Battleships" game field (at least, in the USSR version I used to play) is a 10x10 ...
Thomas Blue's user avatar
  • 6,952
17 votes
1 answer
1k views

But She Don't Care

Eve was visiting Alice and Carol's house and looking through the stuff on their side table, as she does. Eventually, Alice came back from the kitchen and Eve waved a piece of paper she had found in ...
Exal's user avatar
  • 3,770
10 votes
2 answers
652 views

Advantage, Black!

In chess, the white player makes the first move. It is generally understood that this gives white a minor advantage, with a win rate of 52-56%. In this initial position, white actually has checkmate ...
Daniel Causebrook's user avatar
25 votes
1 answer
734 views

Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #10 – Risky Finale

This is the tenth and final Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. Once this puzzle is solved, this Chain ...
Jafe's user avatar
  • 78.1k
6 votes
1 answer
211 views

Plus-sized amoeba escapes

As an extension to @WhatsUp 's question here, the rules of which are included below, with the following differences: In one of the squares, there lives an amoeba (marked as a circle in the following ...
Cireo's user avatar
  • 371
21 votes
2 answers
868 views

Amoebas escaping the prison

There is an infinite grid of squares. In one of the squares, there lives an amoeba (marked as a circle in the following pictures). Amoebas cannot move, but they can perform their unique action: an ...
WhatsUp's user avatar
  • 7,367
18 votes
1 answer
684 views

Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #09 - “The” Cryptic Movies

This is the ninth Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. The answer to this puzzle is a thematic word or ...
bobble's user avatar
  • 10.2k
17 votes
1 answer
570 views

Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #08 - Targui, or not Targui

This is the eighth Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. The answer to this puzzle is a thematic word or ...
Stiv's user avatar
  • 140k
15 votes
2 answers
754 views

Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #06 - So Sorry

This is the sixth Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. The answer to this puzzle is a thematic word or ...
Bubbler's user avatar
  • 13k
10 votes
1 answer
563 views

Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #03 - Down and out in London

This is the third Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. The answer to this puzzle is a thematic word or ...
Stiv's user avatar
  • 140k
19 votes
1 answer
696 views

Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #01 - Let's Play

This is the first Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. The answer to this puzzle is a thematic word or ...
Stiv's user avatar
  • 140k
5 votes
2 answers
297 views

7x7 Knight's tour: Minimal proof for universality on black squares

We already know that 7x7 board cannot have a closed Knight's tour, and it cannot start or end at a white square if R1C1 is black. But our knowledge about 7x7 Knight's tour is still limited. So here is ...
Bubbler's user avatar
  • 13k
5 votes
1 answer
214 views

Move chess pieces to flip starting position in center

The white pieces in the above position should maneuver themselves into the flipped starting position (i.e. king in e3). All pieces makes regular moves within the 4x4 center squares. By removing a pawn ...
TSLF's user avatar
  • 6,656
7 votes
1 answer
294 views

A Game of Black and White

Two people are playing a board game that involves dice. However, one of the players has rigged the dice so that they get the highest possible roll on every turn, while the other player gets a random ...
Bewilderer's user avatar
  • 1,413
-4 votes
1 answer
147 views

What number should be placed in that last slot? [closed]

I came across a very difficult puzzle. What number should be placed in that last slot? I only know 16 is not the correct answer, because 11 is before 10.
James's user avatar
  • 21