Tic Tac Toe Times Twenty

Today, December 12, 2005, was a day perfect for learning a new game! Chris taught Jake how to play Mindrings, billing it as a good 2-player brain warm-up. We played a quick game for learning purposes. Chris won quick -- but just because Jake didn't quite see the finesse and nuance of this quirky little battle of wits.

Here's how the game goes: There is a board consisting of six concentric rings with holes that radiate from the center to make spoke-like lines. Each player alternates, playing a peg on the board. The object: get 4 pegs of your color in a row. Here's what makes it differ from Tic Tac Toe: When you place a peg, you then rotate the circle that peg was placed in -- you can either rotate clockwise one position, or counter-clockwise TWO positions. So, the board is changing every turn.

BREAKING NEWS BULLETIN: Chris brought his camera in today! These are ACTUAL pictures from the games!

The first picture shows what the board looked like after Jake won the first round. Notice the 4-in-a-row line of red pegs at about what would be 4:30 on a clock.


Jake also won the second round. Notice the 4-in-a-row line of red pegs near what would be 1:30 on a clock.

What Jake doesn't know (until he reads this), is that we were playing the "basic" set of rules for the game. If you are really bold, you can play the advanced version -- play is the same, BUT if, at any time, a player can surround two opponents pegs with two pegs of his own, that player can remove those two pegs. EXAMPLE: It is yellow's turn. Yellow places a peg and rotates the board so that, on one of the spokes, there is a line of Yellow, Red, Red, Yellow, in that order. Yellow may then remove those two red pegs from the board.

Next time we'll play the more vicious version.

It's not an easy game to find -- it's made by a company in Canada called "Vantex Corporation" -- I think it's the only game they make. If so, it's a good start for the company. I will be keeping an eye on them for other simple, clever, challenging games.