Tanbo (game)
| Rootbound / Tanbo | |
|---|---|
| Game data | |
| author | Mark Steere |
| publishing company | Locus Games |
| Publishing year | 1993 |
| Art | Board game |
| Teammates | 2 |
| Duration | 60 minutes |
| Age | from 8 years |
Tanbo (Japanese for "rice field") is a strategic board game that was invented by the American Mark Steere in 1983 and published in the same year as Rootbound by Locus Games . It can be played on a go board and with go stones.
regulate
At the beginning, some stones are set up according to a given arrangement. The usual starting line-up for the 9x9 board:
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One player (black) receives the black pieces and the other (white) receives the white pieces accordingly. The players take turns, Black begins. A move consists of placing one of your stones on a free point. In your turn you have to bet. Passing is not allowed.
A stone must always be placed in such a way that it is exactly adjacent to one of your own stones. Opposing neighboring stones play no role. Two stones are adjacent if they are on the same row and in adjacent columns, or vice versa (orthogonal neighborhood).
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In this example, all points that White can bet on to move are marked with a red ring. Only these points are adjacent to exactly one white stone. |
The stones form roots that continue to grow in the course of the game as the stones are placed. They can branch out like plant roots, but never grow together. The stones on the grid each form a root, and a stone always belongs to the root of the same color to which it is placed.
A root is restricted if there is no free point that is adjacent to exactly one stone of the root and to no other stone of the color of the root, or in other words, if one cannot add another stone to the root. If, after a stone has been set, the root to which it was set is restricted, then this root, and only this one, is removed from the board. If it is not constrained but other roots of any color are constrained, then all constrained roots are removed from the board. The removal of the roots occurs before the opponent makes his next move.
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If white bets on the marked point in the diagram on the left , the lower white root is restricted and is removed from the board (right). |
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The game is over when only one player's roots remain on the board. This wins the game.
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Here white can only place on the corner point at the top right, |
properties
- The game is cycle-free. A move either increases the number of stones and does not change the number of roots, or it reduces the number of roots. Therefore a previous arrangement of the stones can never be repeated.
- A draw cannot occur. The rules mean that only unlimited roots remain on the board. As long as both players have roots on the board, they can both expand their roots and eventually one will be restricted again. Either only the extended root is then removed, or only others are removed. So at least one root remains on the board. So it has to come at some point that there are still roots of exactly one player on the board, and that player wins.
- According to the statistics of Super Duper Games , the games are quite long with an average of 200 half-moves (100 moves per player). The first player (black) wins about 69% of the games and therefore has a big advantage in pulling. In principle, however, there is the possibility of reducing the tightening advantage by changing the starting grid. For example, you let one player determine the starting line-up (with certain restrictions) and the other player then decides on a color.
literature
- Cameron Brown: Connection Games. Variations on a Theme. AK Peters, Wellesley MA 2005, ISBN 1-56881-224-8 .