Edgecut 2026

Edgecut is a connection game played on a square, even-sided board. The top and bottom board edges are colored black. The left and right edges are colored white. The board is initially filled with a checkerboard pattern of black and white stones.

To win, Black must form an orthogonally (horizontally and/or vertically) interconnected path of black stones connecting the two black edges of the board. White must connect the two white edges. You can win on your turn or on your opponent's turn.

A crosscut is a 2×2 area containing two diagonally adjacent black stones, and two diagonally adjacent white stones. As the game progresses, crosscuts migrate outward, away from the center of the board. Eventually, they arrive at a board edge, where they disintegrate. When enough crosscuts have been eliminated, a winning path will form.

PlayOn your turn, swap an orthogonally adjacent pair of stones within a crosscut. This kills the crosscut. Players only make one swap per turn, starting with Black. It's possible to kill multiple crosscuts with one swap.

Sometimes, when you kill crosscuts, you simultaneously create new crosscuts. During your turn, all newly created crosscuts must be farther from the center than the killed crosscut that was closest to the center. [The distance from center is measured by the crow-fly, straight-line distance. Not the Manhattan distance. So not necessarily an integer distance.]

Design notesEdgecut was a hard game to design and is a hard game to play. I should have called it Hardcut.