APEX

Copyright (c) 2001 Jochen Drechsler

This game is played on an empty 8x8 square board:

 

EDGES - Each player owns two opposite board edges. TURNS - At each turn, each player must do one of the following things: Drop a stone; Move a stone; Capture a stone. DROP - A stone is dropped into an empty cell on one of the edges owned by the player. After dropping the stone, it may slide (orthogonal or diagonal) along the board, until it meets another stone (no jumping) or the board edge. The stone may stop at any cell. Each player has 11 stones. MOVE - A stone may slide (orthogonal or diagonal) along the board, until it meets another stone (no jumping) or the board edge. CAPTURE - A stone may slide into a cell occupied by an opponent stone, thus capturing it. The captured stone is put back into the opponent reserve and may re-enter the game at any turn. A stone cannot capture adjacent stones. This does not mean that other (non adjacent) stones can capture the latter. GOAL - A player who makes a chain of stones connecting his two edges wins. Two stones are connected if they are adjacent (orthogonal or diagonal).

 

An example White owns top and bottom edges, Black owns left and right. White seems better positioned to start a connection race. He may move b4-f4 (it should not go to b4-d4 or b4-e4, because it could be captured), but it must first protect is stone at e3 by moving it to f3.

There is a ZRF to play Apex with Zillions. This game entered on the 2001 8x8 Game Design Contest and was considered among the best entries.