Quaxtep 2012

Quaxtep is a drawless connection game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the spaces (squares) of an initially empty square grid (board). The top and bottom edges of the board are colored black; the left and right edges are colored white. The board squares alternate between a light and a dark color in a checkered fashion. On odd-sized boards, the center square must be light-colored.

Black starts the game by performing one action. From then on, the players alternate performing two actions per turn. The available actions are:

Placing a friendly stone on an empty light square. Moving a friendly stone from a light square to an adjacent, empty dark square.

You can only pass your turn, or the second action of a turn, if you have no legal actions available.

You win if there is a chain of connected stones of your color touching the two opposite board edges of your color. Two like-colored stones are connected if they occupy orthogonally adjacent squares or diagonally adjacent dark squares.

—description from the designer