horseshoe
History
Horseshoe is a two player game where the players utilize a checkered board and checkered pieces in an attempt to be the first to reach the adjacent side of the board. Due to the lack of documentation when the game was first developed, there is no information regard how the game came into existence.
The Board
Horseshoe is played with a checkered board of 8-rows-by-8-columns that divides the board into 64 squares. This board is similar to the boards that are used to play Checkers. Since the rules for the game don’t require what color the pieces have to be on, any board that can be divided into 64 squares will be valid.
The Pieces
The official pieces that are use in Horseshoe are red and black checkered pieces that can be found in the game of Checkers. Since the game doesn’t require any special shape or color of the pieces, any substitute can be used as long as each player uses a different color.
Rules
To move: Once the players decide who would be the first ones to move, that player will move one of their colored pieces on the board to an open adjacent position on the board. The other player will then move one of their own colored pieces to an adjacent position in an attempt to block their opponent’s next turn from moving.
To win: The game ends when a player is unable to move anymore.
The players have several pieces on the board. Each turn a player will move his/her piece to an adjacent position, attempting to block the opponent’s pieces from being able to move, and the game continues until one player can no longer move any pieces.
Variants
- Misere: The misere version of this game (be the first one to lose to win) is that each player will attempt to trap themselves. Since this action would normally cause the player to lose, in this misere version of Horseshoe, the player to efficiently trap themselves are declared the winner.
- Board Size: Checkered board size can be changed to be X by X size and the pieces can be anything that the players decides to use as long as the pieces are in different color sets from each other.
Gamescrafters
- Venu Kolavennu
- Dave Wong