(Redirected from Abstract strategy)An 'abstract strategy game' is a
board game with
perfect information, no chance, and (usually) two players or teams. Many of the world's classic board games, including
checkers,
chess,
go, and
mancala, fit into this category. Play is sometimes said to resemble a series of
puzzles the players pose to each other.
What counts as an abstract strategy game?
A purist's definition of an abstract strategy game requires that it cannot have random elements or hidden information. In practice, however, many games are commonly classed as abstract strategy games which do not strictly meet these criteria. Games such as
Backgammon,
Octiles,
Can't Stop,
Sequence and
Mentalis have all been described as "abstract strategy" at some point or another, despite having a luck or bluffing element. A smaller category of non-perfect abstract strategy games manage to incorporate hidden information without using any random elements. The best known example here is
Stratego. The pragmatic definition seems to be that if a game is
strategic and is abstract, the term "abstract strategy" should be applicable—this definition is unappealing to purists because the broader class of games falls clearly outside the scope of the techniques of theoretical analysis appropriate to “pure” abstract strategy games.
The analysis of a “pure” abstract strategy game tends to fall under
combinatorial game theory. Abstract strategy games with hidden information, bluffing or simultaneous-move elements are better served by Von Neumann-Morgenstern
game theory, while those with a component of luck may require
probability theory incorporated into either of the above.
In some abstract strategy games there are multiple starting positions of which it is suggested that one be randomly determined: at the very least, in all conventional abstract strategy games a starting player needs to be chosen by some means extrinsic to the game. Some games, such as
Arimaa and
DVONN, have the players build the starting position in a separate initial phase which itself conforms strictly to abstract strategy game principles. However, most people would consider that although one is then starting each game from a different position, the game itself still has no luck element. Indeed,
Bobby Fischer promoted
randomizing the starting position of a game of chess in order to ''increase'' the game's dependence on thinking at the board, which is surely the chief object of an abstract strategy design.
Favorite abstract strategy games
According to two prominent websites which collect user ratings for board games, these are the abstract strategy games highest rated by players (as of
December 2006):
This table uses BoardGameGeek's categorization of 'abstract strategy game', which is not necessarily consistently applied. For this reason games which support more than two players have been marked with
★ and games which violate some other part of the strict definition (such as having a random element or hidden information) have been marked with
★
★ .
List of abstract strategy games
Chess and chess-like games
★
Chaturanga
★
Western Chess
★
Janggi (Korean Chess)
★
Makruk (Thai Chess)
★
Shogi (Japanese Chess)
★
★
Shogi variants
★
Xiangqi (Chinese Chess)
★
Other Chess-like games
===
Paper and pencil games ===
★
Dots and Boxes
★
Sprouts
★
Tic-tac-toe, also known as ''Noughts and Crosses''.
"n-in-a-row" games
Those marked † can conveniently be played as paper and pencil games.
★
Boku
★
Check Lines
★
Connect Four †
★
Connect6 †
★
Gomoku †
★
Hijara †
★
Mojo
★
Morabaraba
★ Morris -
Three,
Six and
Nine Men's Morris
★
Neutreeko
★
Rhumb Line †
★
Pente, a slight simplification of
Ninuki-renju
★
Score Four
★
Qubic
★
Renju †
★
Teeko
Other games
Those marked † can conveniently be played as paper and pencil games.
★
Abalone
★
Agon
★
Alak
★
Alquerque
★
Amazons
★
Andantino †
★
Arimaa
★
Ataxx
★
Axiom
★
Bagha-Chall
★
Blokus
★
Brain Chain
★
Breakthrough
★
Camelot
★
Cathedral
★
Chinese Checkers
★
Crossings
★
Crosstrack
★
Death Stacks
★
Draughts (also known as Checkers)
★
Entropy (1977 and 1994 games)
★
Epaminondas
★
Fanorona
★
Fitchneal
★
Five Field Kono
★
Focus
★
Fox games, such as ''Foxes and geese''
★ The
GIPF project games:
★ #
GIPF
★ #
TAMSK
★ #
ZÈRTZ
★ #
DVONN
★ #
YINSH
★ #
PÜNCT
★
Go
★
Gobblet
★
Gonnect
★
Gounki
★
Halma
★
Havannah †
★
Hex †
★
Hexdame
★
Hive
★
Hnefatafl
★
Irensei
★
Jungle (Dou Shou Qi, ''The Game of Fighting Animals'')
★
Kensington
★
Khet
★
L Game
★
Lasca
★
Lines of Action
★
Lotus
★
Magic Fingers
★
Mak-yek
★
Mancala and
related games
★
Martian Chess (for two to six players)
★
Malaika
★
Mozaic
★
Nim †
★
Orbit
★
Pentago
★
Phutball
★
Pylos
★
Quarto
★
Quirky!
★
Quoridor
★
Reversi, also known as Othello
★
Rubik's Checkers Challenge
★ Rubik's Eclipse
★ Rubik's Illusion
★ Rubik's Infinity
★ Rubik's Magic Strategy Game
★
Rhythmomachy
★
Spangles
★
Spectrangle
★
★ Star †
★
Stratego
★
Tafl games
★
Tanbo
★
Terrace
★
Three Musketeers
★
Thud
★
Trax
★
Turnabout
★
TwixT († ''with modified rules'')
★
Y †
★
Zambezy
See also
★
Solved game
★
Computer chess
★
Game complexity
★
Mind Sports Olympiad
External links
★
Joao P. Neto's World of Abstract Games
★
Mark Thompson's Abstract Games page
★
"Defining the Abstract" by J. Mark Thompson
★
The University of Alberta Games Group
★
Glenn Rhoads' Assorted Fun page
★
David Eppstein's CGT page
★
AbstractStrategy.com
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