''Gonnect'' is a

strategy Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

for two players invented by João Pedro Neto in 2000. The game is played with standard

Go equipment Go equipment refers to the board, stones (playing pieces), and bowls for the stones required to play the game of Go. The quality and materials used in making Go equipment varies considerably, and the cost varies accordingly from economical to ex ...

(usually on a 13×13 or 15×15 board) and basically uses the same rules as ''Go'', however the goal of the game is to construct a group that connects any two opposite sides. Seen from a superficial point of view, Gonnect belongs to the family of

connection game A connection game is a type of abstract strategy game in which players attempt to complete a specific type of connection with their pieces. This could involve forming a path between two or more endpoints, completing a closed loop, or connecting all ...

s with relatives ''Hex'' and '' Havannah''; however, the game mutates into a game of territory (like Go) when played by advanced players.

Game rules

All the rules of ''Go'' apply, except that unlike ''Go'', passing is not allowed. The winning condition is when a player connects opposite edges of the board (either top and bottom, or left and right) with a chain of stones in that player's color. The

pie rule The pie rule, sometimes referred to as the swap rule, is a rule used to balance abstract strategy games where a first-move advantage has been demonstrated. After the first move is made in a game that uses the pie rule, the second player must sel ...

is used to determine who moves first. A player loses if he has no legal move. In common with ''Go'': * A ''connection'' is formed between adjacent pieces of the same color that lie along one of the horizontal or vertical game board lines. Diagonally-adjacent pieces are not considered to be connected. * A ''chain'' refers to a group of pieces of the same color such that all the pieces are connected through adjacent horizontal or vertical pieces. Go adjacent stones

* A stone has ''liberty'' when it is adjacent (horizontally or vertically) to an empty point. If any stone in a chain has liberty, the chain is considered to have liberty. When the chain has no liberty, it is considered to be captured and is removed from the board. * Players are forbidden from playing a stone that creates a chain of that player's color without liberties, unless that completes a capture and creates a liberty ( suicide rule). * Players are forbidden from making a move that would recreate the same board position as after their previous move (

ko rule The rules of Go have seen some variation over time and from place to place. This article discusses those sets of rules broadly similar to the ones currently in use in East Asia. Even among these, there is a degree of variation. Notably, Chinese ...

). Games between skilled players often end up temporarily deadlocked, since the square Go board allows a "four corners" configuration where neither side can strongly connect; however, since players cannot pass, they eventually must start filling in the internal liberties of their groups. The player who has gained the smallest amount of territory usually loses, so building more territory than your opponent is a means of forcing a connection and winning. Thus, a Gonnect game between similarly skilled-opponents generally unfolds in three stages: # ''Board-filling'' stage – opponents race to connect sides until the position is deadlocked # ''Eye-making'' stage – players squeeze their opponent's territory to form safe groups with at least two eyes # ''Eye-filling'' stage – players must fill in their own eye space or destroy their opponent's

Example

In this example on a 13×13 board, Black has built a winning ''chain'' from A7-A8-A9 in the middle of the left side connecting to N2-N3 on the right side near the bottom corner. Because D10 and E9 are not considered adjacent because they are diagonal to each other, so there is no second winning Black ''chain'' from A9 to N11-12-13.

History

''Gonnect'' was discovered on July 18, 2000 by Dr. João Neto, while he was updating his website "Variations on Go". He was aiming to combine the play of ''Go'' with the connection objective of ''Hex'', but was stymied by the deadlocks resulting from two-eye structures. In discussion with other game players, Neto realized that adding a "no pass" rule would resolve this. Rules have been published proposing the use of both 13×13 and 9×9 boards, although 9×9 and smaller boards give the first player (Black) a strong advantage.

References

External links

* * http://www.di.fc.ul.pt/~jpn/gv/gonnect.htm *{{bgg, 12146, Gonnect Board games introduced in 2000 Abstract strategy games Connection games Games played on Go boards