Strategy, history and quick duels
How to read an opponent, where the games come from, and how to get better at them.
Dots and Boxes: the exercise-book game with a mathematician’s history
Where Dots and Boxes comes from: Édouard Lucas and la pipopipette, its names around the world, Winning Ways, the board solved in 2012, and variants to try.
How to win at Dots and Boxes
Most Dots and Boxes games are decided by chains. How to keep control by giving two boxes away, and the long chain rule that tells you who will get it.
Pencil and paper games for two players
Seven two-player games you can play with a pencil and a sheet of paper: the rules of each, where it comes from, and the one idea that makes you better at it.
How to always win the 21 game
In the 21 game, whoever leaves a multiple of 4 always wins. The trick, why it works, the versions where it changes, and how it solves classic Nim.
Is rock paper scissors luck or skill?
One throw of rock paper scissors is pure chance. A match is not. What the maths, a $20 million auction and a bot tournament say about skill — and how to test yours.
How to win at tic-tac-toe, and never lose
Tic-tac-toe can always be drawn, yet most players still lose it. The best opening moves, the fork, the trap to avoid and how to beat a careless opponent.
Reload, shield, shoot: the rules and how to win
The playground standoff where you reload, block or shoot at the same moment as your opponent: the rules, why bullet counting matters, and how to win a match.
Rock paper scissors: the rules, the variants and the history
The rules of rock paper scissors, how a match is scored, what the game is called around the world, the five-sign lizard Spock variant, and where it came from.
How to win at rock paper scissors
Rock paper scissors is luck for one throw and skill over a match. The patterns people fall into, what a 2014 study found, and how to use it.
Games like Stratego: the hidden-piece family
Stratego belongs to a family of games where you cannot see your opponent’s pieces. Where it came from, its relatives, and a quicker one to play online.