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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Magic Maze Puzzle
Inspired by the board game, Magic Maze
Set-up:
Cut out each 4x4 tile, and the four small tokens (orange, yellow, green and purple), from the provided image below. Place tile 1 on a flat surface with ...
37
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2answers
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A Boyfriend's Mysterious Message
Imogen was dog-tired, but excited! After 3 gruelling weeks of 16-hour work days imposed by an iron-willed boss, she was finally finished all her projects. She'd been processing (figurative) ...
31
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2answers
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Alice and Bob invent a game
The rain was still falling in Wales, and Alice and Bob were terribly bored of having to stay inside the caravan. With just a deck of cards to entertain them they had played all of the card games in ...
27
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5answers
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Shortest game of Monopoly
This video claims that the fastest game of monopoly involves 4 turns and 9 rolls of the dice. I am wondering if this is actually the shortest game or can we do better in theory? What is the ...
27
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2answers
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The Swedish king and the chessboard
The following puzzle is an old classic, due originally to the great puzzler Sam Loyd, who published the first three parts in 1859; the fourth and fifth parts are variations due to Brian Stewart and ...
26
votes
3answers
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Unfinished Snakes and Ladders
An entry for Fortnightly Topic Challenge #40, have fun with non-Chess puzzle! ;)
Three young children: Red, Green, and Blue; were playing a classic game of Snakes and Ladders, when suddenly their mom ...
24
votes
1answer
488 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 ...
22
votes
1answer
1k views
Monte Carlo Chess
This is an entry to the 17th fortnightly topic challenge.
Chess is an interesting game, but is so unrealistic. In real life, you couldn't tell order your knight to attack an enemy bishop and expect ...
21
votes
2answers
754 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 ...
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5answers
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Battleship- Best Next Move
Mason likes the game Battleship, but he doesn't win much. However, Sherry, his opponent, is so confident in her skill and luck that she has agreed to let Mason have his five friends help him.
Sherry'...
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votes
2answers
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Let's continue our Monopoly game
This is an entry into the 29th fortnightly topic challenge - Retrograde Analysis.
Two friends and I were playing a game of Monopoly when we were forced to stop. It's been a long time since we ...
20
votes
3answers
588 views
Help Black slide the blocks to solve this chess problem
Here's a chess problem which plays very like a sliding-block puzzle, hence the rather unusual tag combo.
Ljubomir Ugren
2nd Prize, Mat, 1976; John Nunn, Solving in Style, no. 183
sh#19
To explain ...
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5answers
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Chess puzzle in which guarded pieces may not move
Here's an interesting twist on the theme of chess puzzles, originally from the book Caissa's Fairy Tales by T. R. Dawson.
What is the minimum number of moves White needs to win this game from the ...
18
votes
2answers
546 views
Where am I supposed to be tonight?
This is bad. Really bad.
We’ve only just met, and you don’t know me from Adam, but I really need your help – it’s a matter of national security.
I work for… well, let’s just say I work for the ...
18
votes
1answer
1k views
A game of red and black
Two players, red and black, play a game. The outcome is as follows:
CCCBBABCDFBBDDE
Who won the game, and what game were they playing?
HINT:
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votes
1answer
546 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 ...
18
votes
1answer
551 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 ...
17
votes
1answer
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What's the maximum number of pegs you can leave on a 15-hole triangular peg solitaire?
Peg Solitaire is mostly known to me as the triangular board with 15 holes and 14 pegs (mostly because of the restaurant Cracker Barrel). The rules are simple: pegs jump each other in straight lines, ...
17
votes
3answers
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Checkmate all the kings #1
The purpose of this puzzle is to find the minimum number of moves to checkmate all the kings.
RULES
You are playing as White and you can make as many moves as you want before Black's turn....
17
votes
1answer
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Clear board in Othello (Generalisation)
Based on Clear board in Othello
If we have an $2m\times 2n$ Othello board ($m\geq n\geq 2$), and the
centre $4$ squares have the usual starting position, then for what all
values of $m$ and $n$ ...
17
votes
1answer
477 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 ...
17
votes
2answers
584 views
What is the optimal strategy for this triangular board game?
I saw a board game somewhere and I want to know the optimal strategy for it.
The game is played on a triangular board with 21 slots:
The two players, red and blue, take turns to put numbered circles ...
16
votes
1answer
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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 ...
15
votes
2answers
667 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 ...
14
votes
5answers
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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 ...
14
votes
1answer
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Scrabble Impossibilities
The other day I was playing the popular board game with my good friend, Chet Manley. Though he had me on the ropes for most of the game, I finally had a 6 letter word that I slapped down on the board ...
14
votes
2answers
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Twelve Labours - #02 Lernaean Hydration
This puzzle is part of the ‘Twelve Labours’ series. Previous instalments can be found here: Prologue | 01
His first labour now complete, Hercules made his way up the street to the storage depot for ...
14
votes
3answers
661 views
ABC - A Blokus Commitment
Welcome to Blokus, a board game where you can place pieces of 1 to 5 blocks on a square board.
Each player has at his disposal every piece from monomino to pentomino.
A player's inventory is ...
14
votes
2answers
433 views
Gliding through an ice-maze
Two men are trapped in an icy cave. Nowhere to go, except for two small holes in the ice, heading down. Only by working together, they can get deeper into the cave, hopefully finding a way out. Will ...
14
votes
2answers
826 views
Who is missing here?
It seems my last few puzzles have all been far too easy and quickly solved. Let's see how long this one stands against the genius of the combined PSE community.
$$[56\;68\;76\;80\;80\;76\;68\;56]^2 \;...
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votes
3answers
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Four free rooks for checkmate
You are given a chessboard with a black king at d5, and four white rooks in your hand.
You may place the rooks onto the board one at a time, always checking the king. After each rook placed, the king ...
13
votes
2answers
582 views
Stepladder Game, Introduction and Puzzle 1: Turning
I want to introduce a new game to PSE: the Stepladder Game!*
* You may already know this game by another name.
The rules for the Stepladder Game:
The game is played on a grid.
Our grid is ...
12
votes
4answers
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Othello - Most number of legal moves in a given turn
I asked this over on boardgames SE, and was directed to post here in hopes of getting an answer. Original post is here: https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/29824/othello-most-number-of-...
12
votes
3answers
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Capturing The Shadow King
White to play (Regular moves apply except for Black King)
Black King or Shadow King can move to "any" square that is not attacked by white pieces. It can not capture its opponent. When not in check ...
11
votes
2answers
610 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 ...
11
votes
2answers
376 views
Cover an unusual board with minimum chess rooks
This is an entry for the 17th Fortnightly Challenge.
On this unusual board, how many chess rooks minimum needed to attack all tiles, but they are not attacking each other ? Show us the formation.
...
11
votes
3answers
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Checkmate all the kings #3
Following the rules created by Lord of dark in this puzzle, and used here also, the idea is to find the minimum number of consecutive white moves to checkmate all the black kings (in this case 12). ...
11
votes
2answers
772 views
Checkmate all the kings #2
Following the rules created by Lord of dark in this puzzle, the idea is to find the minimum number of consecutive white moves to checkmate all the black kings (in this case just 1). You cannot make a ...
11
votes
2answers
406 views
No-Connecting-4
Imagine a game of connect 4 where Player1 wins by Player2 connecting 4, and Player2 wins by forcing the board into a filled board without any 4-in-a-rows. A tie happens if Player1 connects 4.
Now Let'...
10
votes
2answers
206 views
What is the minimum-sized Blokus board which can contain all pieces?
Rules:
Each player has the twelve pentominoes, five tetrominoes, two trominoes, one domino, and lone square. These may be flipped and rotated in any manner.
The board on which these are to be placed ...
10
votes
1answer
951 views
Clear board in Othello
Is there a valid set of moves in Othello that allows a win score of 64-0 for either player?
And is there record of any such game in the past?
10
votes
1answer
491 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 ...
10
votes
3answers
411 views
Black to play and win (Teeko)
$$\def\S#1{\phantom{\Space{18px}{22px}{0px}}\llap{#1}}
\begin{array}{|c|c|c|c|c|}\hline
\S{}&\S{}&\S{}&\S{}&\S{}\\\hline
\S{}&&&&\\\hline
\S{}&&X&O&X\\\...
10
votes
1answer
325 views
Who Wins At Horsie-Push?
Allan, Brian, and Charlie had a chess set and an afternoon with nothing to do. A chess tournament was suggested but to three towering intellects such as these, regular chess is a frivolous, juvenile ...
9
votes
3answers
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Queen chasing a knight (chess pieces)
There is a player who controls only a queen, while his opponent controls a knight. Both pieces start from opposite corners of the board. The aim is to kill the knight, without having your queen killed....
9
votes
2answers
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Minimum number of turns to capture all pieces in Checkers
On an 8x8 checkerboard, there are 12 red kings and 1 black king. The kings behave as they would in any normal game of checkers, being able to move in any diagonal direction one space and jump any ...
9
votes
1answer
301 views
Simple Homeworlds puzzle
On this site, we have numerous chess puzzles. however, we do not seem to have any Homeworlds puzzles, the game of space kings (yes this can be tagged outer space thank you very much.)
Hence, here is ...
8
votes
2answers
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8-queen puzzle on its head
You have 64 chess queens which come in 8 colors, with 8 queens per color. The goal is fill a chessboard with these queens so that any two queens of the same color cannot attack each other, even when ...
8
votes
4answers
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What was the last move made in this game?
What was white's last move in the game shown below?
Note: This is a screenshot taken from an actual game and all moves made were legal.
ETA: The last move played by white was the last move of the ...
8
votes
2answers
612 views
Checkmate all the kings #4
Following the rules created by Lord of dark in this puzzle, and used here and here also, the idea is to find the minimum number of consecutive white moves to checkmate all the black kings (in this ...