Alter Igo

   

Alter Igo is a game that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike go. It is basically Bass's exercise in reducing the rule set of go to a minimum, while maintaining the concepts of surrounding territory, making strategic choices and making living groups. Still, it seems to make a playable game.


Complete rules of Alter Igo

Rule 1: Prerequisites.

  The game is played on a rectangular grid of lines. There are
  two players, one having black stones and the other having
  white stones.

Rule 2: Game play.

  The players alternatingly place their respective
  stones on empty intersections.

Rule 3: Strings.

  If a stone is adjacent to another stone of the same color,
  these stones are said to belong to the same string. A stone
  that is not adjacent to any same colored stone, is a string by
  itself.

Rule 4: Capture.

  Immediately after each stone is placed, every string that
  is not adjacent to at least one empty intersection, is
  removed from the board.

Rule 5: End of the game.

  The game ends in
  * a draw, if the same board position is repeated three times
  * opponent's win, if a player resigns
  * opponent's win, if a player plays a stone that
    does not alter the board position in any way.

Rule 6: There is no rule six.


I have played a couple of games on a 9x9 board using these rules, and have not yet run into any unexpected trouble, wiz. all the trouble that was ran into, was very much expected. Some analysis on the most obvious changes is available [ext] in Finnish.

If you ever try these rules, please be sure to report your experiences below.

By the way, the original name was "Epägo", which is Finnish for "non-go". The translation "Alter Igo" was suggested by Mikael Runonen, whom I owe a beer for this favor :-)

Have fun,

 --Bass

DougRidgway In the capturing rule, capturing strings might also get removed. This is what is wanted, not the usual go capturing rule?

Eratos I don't understand the ending condition - Opponent wins if a player plays a stone that does not alter the board position - example please?

Pajaro About not altering the board, I suspect that if you play a stone inside an eye, then it's a suicide, it is removed, and the board doesn't change. Game over. I've also noticed that there is no pass rule, or counting of territories. I guess that when the game would be over (assuming real go), the players could start playin inside the territories, until one side is forced to commit suicide. The player with less territory might be the one forced to lose, but I'm not sure, according to the wat stones are removed.


Hi all, and thanks for your comments.

The capturing stones may also get removed, since preventing that would require an exception to the rule. I actually thought about adding the exception, but then the game would resemble actual go so much, that someone might mistakenly think I had just tried to define a new ruleset for the game of go ;-)

About the game end, if you actually play a game, you will notice that eventually one of the players cannot play anything but a single stone suicide. This will happen after all that player's stones have been removed, and all the other player's eyes have been reduced to one space. I wanted the rules to be complete without defining a "single stone suicide that does not remove any opponent's stones", that is the cause for the wording. I think I must reword that rule somehow, so that it is easier to understand.

The absence of passing and counting is very, very intentional. Since counting requires some kind of determination of living and dead stones, a complete ruleset and discussion of its flaws would fill many books. (see rec.games.go for example :-)

In Alter Igo the winner will be the player with most "spare eyes", that is, eyes that are not needed for living. Often the player with the most territory will also be the one with most spare eyes, but of course this is not always the case.

  --Bass

This is a copy of the living page "Alter Igo" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2004 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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