Spelde 2024

Spelde (from Middle English: spelde, meaning "to split") is a drawless game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the hexes (cells) of an initially empty hexagonal board. The recommended size is 7 cells per side, but boards of 5 to 9 are also valid. Each player has access to a sufficient supply of stones of their own color.

Definitions: A group is a maximal set of stones of the same color connected to each other. A single stone is also a group. To flip is to replace enemy stones with friendly stones. To split is to separate a group of enemy stones into two or more independent groups by turning over one or more subsets of stones from the original group.

Turns:Black plays first and then turns alternate. On your turn, place a stone of your color on an empty cell. If the placed stone is adjacent to one or more enemy groups, you must split each of those groups; otherwise, the placement is illegal.

To split a group, flip a consecutive chain of stones in that group. The first must be adjacent to the newly placed stone, and the last must be the one that causes the division.

If you cannot make a placement, pass your turn; otherwise, passing is not allowed.

End of the game:The game ends when neither player can make any placement. The player with the largest group wins; in the event of a tie, the next largest groups are compared until a difference is found. The player who places the last stone receives an additional half point.

To balance the game, before starting, the first player places a black stone on an empty cell, and the second player chooses a side. This balancing method is called the pie rule.

—description from the designer