Diamond 2012

Another connection game by Larry Back uses a unique, diamond-shaped board made of interlocking squares and triangles. Equipment: 12 black and 12 white pieces for two players, with a neutral set of 15 red pieces. These will be played onto the points of the squares and triangles, and there is a total of 62 playable points on the board. Goal: to occupy the the four corners of any square with your pieces.

Game play: during the first phase, players take turns placing their pieces onto any point of the board. If the winning configuration hasn't been achieved yet, then the second phase begins, in which pieces can be moved to an adjacent point in any direction.

Capturing: a piece can only be captured if it is on a corner of a triangle and is the only piece an opponent has on that triangle or pair thereof. This means that only one piece can be captured at a time; if a move causes you to corner two of an opponent's pieces nothing happens. A captured piece is replaced with a red one.

Red pieces: once placed, they cannot be moved around, but must remain next to at least one black or white piece. If they become isolated, then during a player's turn, he or she may decide to remove such an isolate instead of moving one of his or her pieces.