Connect6

Rules

The rules of Connect6 are very simple and similar to the traditional game of Gomoku:

• Players and stones: There are two players. Black plays first, and White second. Each player plays with an appropriate color of stones, as in Go and Gomoku.
• Game board: Connect6 is played on a square board made up of orthogonal lines, with each intersection capable of holding one stone. In theory, the game board can be any finite size from 1×1 up (integers only), or it could be of infinite size. However, boards that are too small may lack strategy (boards smaller than 6×6 are automatic draws), and extremely large or infinite boards are of little practical use. 19×19 Go boards might be the most convenient. For a longer and more challenging game, another suggested size is 59×59, or nine Go boards tiled in a larger square (using the join lines between the boards as additional grid lines).
• Game moves: Black plays first, putting one black stone on one intersection. Subsequently, White and Black take turns, placing two stones on two different unoccupied spaces each turn.
• Winner: The player who is the first to get six or more stones in a row (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) wins. (This is a departure from Gomoku, where it must be exactly five in a row.)

According to Professor Wu, the handicap of black’s only being able to play one stone on the first turn means that the game is comparatively fair; unlike similar games such as Gomoku and Connect Four, which have been proven to give the first player a large advantage, possibly no additional compensation is necessary to make the game fair.

Links

• Wikipedia - Rules, History
• Board Game Geek