Lear 2016

IntroductionLear is a finite territory game for two players: Black and White. It's played on the intersections (points) of an initially empty square board. The suggested board sizes are between 7x7 and 10x10 points.

DefinitionsTo flip a stone means to replace it with a stone of the opposite color.

PlayBlack plays first, then turns alternate. On their turn, a player must place a stone of their color on an empty point. If the placement is part of one or more uninterrupted orthogonal lines of stones made of

a) two friendly stones and b) an uninterrupted line of enemy stones,

said enemy stones are flipped. The two friendly stones can be both at one end of the enemy line or one at each end.

x+oo ... +xoo ... +ooox ... +xxooo

In the first three diagrams above, an x play at + flips the o stones; in the fourth diagram, it doesn't.

When a placement fills the last empty point on the board, all enemy stones that would normally be flipped as a result of it are removed instead, after which the game ends.

The winner is the player with the highest score in the final position. A player's score is the number of stones with their color showing that there are on the board, minus half a point for the player who made the last placement.