Playing Go on Hex boards Hex, Havannah

3 replies. Last post: 2003-12-25

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Playing Go on Hex boards
  • Tim Shih ★ at 2003-12-23

    Since Passenger has a great idea, let me throw in my two cents on another idea (or perhaps this idea was mentioned and tried in the past):

    Did anyone ever play Go on Hex boards? That is, now, the objective of the game is to enclose as much territory as possible, but NOT to connect both edges.

    Each intersection (or each cell) possesses 6 breathing spaces, instead of 4 on a Go board. Also, Ko will not exist. Only 5 stones are needed to make a permanently alive group (with two eyes) at the acute corner. Isn't it neat/cool?

    My suspicion that Hex is not as popular as it should be may be related to its civility, in comparsion to Go. See, on a Go board, players do literally slaughter each other, very bloody. :) Dead stones are removed from the board.

    On Hex boards, by contrast, we do not kill. At most, we squeeze, poke, wrestle, or cut off each other's arms and legs.

    Human beings are born with innate cruelty. Rather than suppressing it, or venting it to real life, let us vent it on the Hex board. :)

    Shall we call it Hexgo or Gohex? And we can even continue to play on LG website.

  • David J Bush ★ at 2003-12-24

    The following links were provided by Jonathan R. Ferro when I mentioned Hex on the newsgroup rec.games.go:

    A well-presented article about hexagonal and trigonal play, with some

    play examples.

    http://www.abstractgamesmagazine.com/go_variants.html

    Shorter presentation of each board type, but many more to choose from.

    http://www.di.fc.ul.pt/~jpn/gv/boards.htm

    Some games by Christian Freeling based on territory and capture.

    http://www.mindsports.net/CompleteGames/Territory/Medusa.html

    http://www.mindsports.net/CompleteGames/Territory/Lotus.html

  • Tim Shih ★ at 2003-12-25

    Thank you so much, David, so now I realized that the traditional/conventional Go is still the best among all the possible variants, after having visited the websites you recommended. Good night.

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