''EinStein würfelt nicht!'' (''Einstein/"OneStone" does not play
dice
A die (: dice, sometimes also used as ) is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, ro ...
'') is a board game, designed by
Ingo Althöfer
Ingo Althöfer (born 1961) is a German mathematician and former professor of operations research at the University of Jena.
Althöfer earned his PhD in 1986 at Bielefeld University. His dissertation, ''Asymptotic Properties of Certain Competiti ...
, a professor of applied mathematics in
Jena
Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. It was the official game of an exhibition about
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...
in Germany during the
Einstein Year (2005).
The name of the game in German has a double meaning. It is a play on Einstein's famous quote "
I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice" and also refers to the fact that when a player has only one cube (''ein Stein'') remaining, they no longer need to "play dice", and may simply move the cube.
Rules
The game is played on a square board with a 5×5 grid. Each player has six cubes, numbered one to six. During setup, players arrange the cubes within the triangular area of their own color.
The players take turns rolling a
six-sided die
A die (: dice, sometimes also used as ) is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, ro ...
and then moving the matching cube. If the matching cube is no longer on the board, the player moves a remaining cube whose number is next-higher or next-lower to the rolled number. The player starting in the top-left may move that cube one square to the right, down, or on the diagonal down and to the right; the player starting in the bottom-right may move that cube one square to the left, up, or on the diagonal up and to the left. Any cube which already lies in the target square is removed from the board.
The objective of the game is for a player to either get one of their cubes to the far corner square in the grid (where their opponent started) or to remove all of their opponent's cubes from the board.
Strategy
The fewer cubes a player has, the "more mobile" those cubes are, since more die rolls can result in moving the same piece. Therefore, it can be helpful to aim to remove one's own cubes in order to be able to move them with a higher individual
probability
Probability is a branch of mathematics and statistics concerning events and numerical descriptions of how likely they are to occur. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1; the larger the probability, the more likely an e ...
than having multiple cubes remaining.
Schwarz tables
The "mobility" of pieces given the removal of one or more pieces can be quantified with probability. The Schwarz score of a set of pieces on the board is defined as the expected number of remaining moves, assuming no capturing takes place, for one of the pieces to reach its goal. In general, players should minimize the Schwarz score of their pieces and maximize the Schwarz score of their opponent's pieces. As there are six pieces, and each piece can be 1, 2, 3, or 4 moves away from their goal, or out of play, there are 15,625 distinct situations in which Schwarz scores can be precomputed.
Variants
The game can also be played on a 6 × 6 board with ten pieces on each side, labeled 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. A pair of 6-sided dice are rolled. The game can also be played in rounds with a
doubling cube
Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back at least 1,600 years. The earliest record of backgammo ...
as in
backgammon
Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back at least 1,600 years. The earliest record of backgammo ...
.
See also
*
World Year of Physics 2005
The year 2005 was named the World Year of Physics, also known as Einstein Year, in recognition of the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein's " Miracle Year", in which he published four landmark papers, and the subsequent advances in the field of ...
*
16th Computer Olympiad
External links
Official Website of the World Year of Physics 2005Ingo Althöfer's website(mixed German/English)
(mixed German/English)
Little GolemOnline two player games including ''EinStein würfelt nicht'' (free login required, English)
MastermovesAnother site with online two player games including ''EinStein würfelt nicht'' (free login required, English)
*
for playing ''EinStein würfelt nicht'' (based on WinBoard GUI)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Einstein Wurfelt Nicht
Board games introduced in 2004
Abstract strategy games