Halfcut 2023

Halfcut is a two-player game played on a square board of any size, initially empty. The two players, Red and Blue, take turns placing their own checkers onto unoccupied squares, one checker per turn, starting with Red. Passing is not allowed, but if you don't have an available placement, your turn is skipped.

Red must form a path of red checkers (interconnected via horizontal or vertical adjacencies, or both) connecting the two red sides of the board. Blue must form a path of blue checkers connecting the two blue sides of the board.

Groups and crosscutsA group here is a monocolored group of checkers interconnected horizontally or vertically, or both. Diagonal adjacencies are irrelevant in Halfcut.

A crosscut is a 2x2 area with two diagonally adjacent checkers of each color.

A crosscut group is the group that contains a crosscut checker.

PlayYou can only form a crosscut if by doing so you create a new crosscut group which is larger than at least one of the enemy crosscut groups of the crosscut.

Having formed a crosscut, immediately remove the enemy crosscut checkers which are part of enemy crosscut groups which are smaller than your newly formed crosscut group, concluding your turn.

In order to make a placement which would form two crosscuts simultaneously, you would have to satisfy the crosscut rule for both of the crosscuts, each considered separately.