Manhattan 2021

Manhattan is a two-player game played on a 6x6 (or 8x8...) checkerboard initially filled with a checkered pattern of red and blue checkers, minus a 2x2 block of checkers in the center.

The two players, Red and Blue, take turns moving or removing their own checkers, one checker per turn, starting with Red. Passing is not allowed, but, if you have no moves available, your turn is skipped.

To win you must merge your checkers into a single group. Draws cannot occur.

Singletons, groups, and Manhattan distanceA singleton is a single checker not orthogonally (horizontally or vertically) adjacent to any other like-colored checkers. A group is composed of two or more orthogonally interconnected like-colored checkers. Manhattan distance is the shortest distance between two checkers, along orthogonally interconnected unoccupied squares.

Move typesThere are two types of moves in Manhattan: the singleton move and removing a single checker from a group. On his turn a player must either move or remove one of his checkers, but not both.

Singleton move: You can move one of your checkers to an orthogonally adjacent, unoccupied square that is closer (Manhattan distance) to its nearest like-colored checker. Checker removal: You can remove one of your checkers from a group, but not in a way that splits the group into two or more groups.