Switchback 2026

Switchback is a drawless connection game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the intersections (points) of an initially empty square board. The recommended board size is 13 points per side, but boards of 9, 11, 15 and 17 are also valid. Each player has access to a sufficient supply of stones of their own color. Black connects the top and bottom edges; White connects the left and right edges.

Definitions: A path is a maximal set of stones of the same color connected orthogonally or diagonally. A single stone is also a path. A crosscut is a 2×2 area whose diagonals are occupied by two stones of each color.

Turns:Black plays first and then turns alternate. On your turn, place a stone of your color on an empty point. For each crosscut formed by placing or moving a stone, move each stone of the opposite color that forms it to an empty point adjacent, different from those you have just vacated, if it has a valid destination. If in any crosscut none of its stones has a valid destination, the placement or movement that initiated the sequence is illegal.

End of the game:At the beginning of a player's turn, if a path of their color connects their two edges, the game ends and that player wins.

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

—description from the publisher