Equipment:
A set of dominoes and a chess or checker board
Number of players:
2
The Set-up:
An empty 8 x 8 grid starts the game. Each player has access to a supply of dominoes. The size of the dominoes should ideally be slightly less than that of a 2 x 1 rectangle on the grid that is being used for the game. The first player places dominoes in a North-South orientation the remaining player orients her dominoes East-West
A Move:
At your turn you place a domino to cover two squares on the grid. You may only place your domino in your allowed orientation i.e. North-South (for 1st player) and East-West (for 2nd player).
You win:
If your opponent has no valid move.
Comments:
Here is a typical position after each player has completed nine moves:
To find out best moves in this situation players are led to consider the various outcomes on smaller grids of different shapes:
Whichever player moves first "wins" on each of these shapes.
In this case North-South's best move is to place her domino in the centre position thus "winning" this shape since East-West would then have no valid move. If East-West has first move on this shape he will win no matter where he places his first domino.
Variations:
This game is sometimes known as Crosscram.
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