Puzzle #95: White to Play; White to Tinue

Hello, all!

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season! Mine has been nice so far, but busy. Not a whole lot of time to play Tak, so I dug back in my screenshots and found this one.

For those new to my puzzles, I try my best to post one every Saturday night (EST). They are usually one of the following types: Tinue (game ending via forced road), Tinue Avoidance (is there a way out?), Gaelet (game ending via flat count), and Best Move (what would you do, and why?).

The type featured tonight is a Tinue puzzle. Tinue is defined as a board state in which no matter what the opposing player does during their turn (White, in this instance), a road win will be awarded to the other player (Black) on their next turn. If you are familiar with Chess, Tinue is very similar to Checkmate.

The best way to solve these puzzles is to find a move that forces your opponent into doing something. Then, you use that forced move to force another move, until you have won. Sometimes there are more ways than 1 to go about this. While I love seeing the different variations, usually the shortest path to a forced win is considered best. The following is a simple example to show how this works (you can use the arrow keys to step through the moves and the number keys to select which branch you are following):




Please form your answer with PTN or a link to your solution via ptn.ninja. Also, be sure to use the spoiler tag so as not to ruin it for later puzzle solvers.

** I have noticed some people commenting directly to my blog post when answering puzzles. I would kindly ask that you post your answers on the appropriate post on the Reddit page for Tak (r/tak). This will make it easier for me to respond in a timely manner. On that note, I would like to also apologize to those same people for my delayed replies.

The new Reddit spoiler tag is shown below:

>!spoiler!<

Ex:  >!35. a3> 3b2+!<

Thank you and enjoy!!

P.S. I'm going to try to post my #100 puzzle contest information on Tuesday, since I have the day off.

Puzzle #94: White to Play; White to Tinue

Hello, Takolytes!

I thought it was time to do another size 6 puzzle, since I've done a couple weeks on the smaller board. This is from a quick game against IntuitionBot, as I haven't had much time to play lately due to the holiday season and all that entails.

For those new to my puzzles, I try my best to post one every Saturday night (EST). They are usually one of the following types: Tinue (game ending via forced road), Tinue Avoidance (is there a way out?), Gaelet (game ending via flat count), and Best Move (what would you do, and why?).

The type featured tonight is a Tinue puzzle. Tinue is defined as a board state in which no matter what the opposing player does during their turn (White, in this instance), a road win will be awarded to the other player (Black) on their next turn. If you are familiar with Chess, Tinue is very similar to Checkmate.

The best way to solve these puzzles is to find a move that forces your opponent into doing something. Then, you use that forced move to force another move, until you have won. Sometimes there are more ways than 1 to go about this. While I love seeing the different variations, usually the shortest path to a forced win is considered best. The following is a simple example to show how this works (you can use the arrow keys to step through the moves and the number keys to select which branch you are following):




Please form your answer with PTN or a link to your solution via ptn.ninja. Also, be sure to use the spoiler tag so as not to ruin it for later puzzle solvers.

** I have noticed some people commenting directly to my blog post when answering puzzles. I would kindly ask that you post your answers on the appropriate post on the Reddit page for Tak (r/tak). This will make it easier for me to respond in a timely manner. On that note, I would like to also apologize to those same people for my delayed replies.

The new Reddit spoiler tag is shown below:

>!spoiler!<

Ex:  >!35. a3> 3b2+!<

Thank you and enjoy!!

P.S. After next week's puzzle, I plan to make a post about my upcoming puzzle contest!

Puzzle #93: Black to Play; Best Move

Good evening, Takkers!

I hope everyone had a good week! Lots of snow here, but it's mostly taken care of. Unfortunately, working on the snow left me less time for Tak. Sometimes adulting isn't worth it :)

This week's puzzle is from a game of mine a last month against Aaaarghbot.

For those new to my puzzles, I try my best to post one every Saturday night (EST). They are usually one of the following types: Tinue (game ending via forced road), Tinue Avoidance (is there a way out?), Gaelet (game ending via flat count), and Best Move (what would you do, and why?).

The type featured tonight is a Best Move puzzle. Your challenge is to evaluate the board state and determine the strongest move for Black. Then, explain why you made your choice.

Please form your answer with PTN or a link to your solution via ptn.ninja. Also, be sure to use the spoiler tag so as not to ruin it for later puzzle solvers.

** I have noticed some people commenting directly to my blog post when answering puzzles. I would kindly ask that you post your answers on the appropriate post on the Reddit page for Tak (r/tak). This will make it easier for me to respond in a timely manner. On that note, I would like to also apologize to those same people for my delayed replies.

The new Reddit spoiler tag is shown below:

>!spoiler!<

Ex:  >!35. a3> 3b2+!<

Thank you and enjoy!!

P.S. Let me know what you think of these puzzles and which types you would like to see more of.

P.P.S If you have board states that you would like me to post as a puzzle, feel free to send them my way. If you would like to post them yourself, but are unsure how, I can also help with that. The best way to reach me is bill.leighton1@gmail.com. You can also message me on Reddit or Discord under rabbitboy84.

PAX Unplugged Post Mortem and Puzzle #92

Good evening, Takkers!

It's been a busy couple weeks for me: working, planning, packing, traveling, PAX-ing, traveling, unpacking, and getting back to work :)

But, tonight I can finally take a bit to evaluate and share my experience at the convention.

This was only my second board game convention (the first was GenCon earlier this year). It was another great experience! Even though there were thousands of people in the convention hall, everyone was both polite and excited to be there. The energy surrounding this event was enough to keep me buoyed each day until 2 or 3 am, when I finally had to crash and get ready for the next day.

Friday and Sunday were partial days for me, but I filled them to the brim with board games, card games, and great conversations. Saturday was my Tak day, beginning with a USTA breakfast meeting, then setting up and helping run the tournament, a lunch on the run, followed by a meeting with Greater than Games, and another short USTA meeting.

The tournament was a great success, especially given the short notice for both us and the attendees. We filled the 16 seats and had a waiting list, to boot. The Swiss format let all participants get in 4 rounds of continuous play with 4 different opponents, maximizing the bang for the buck. Congrats to applemonkeyman for taking the win, undefeated! He walked away with the Arcanist's board, a set of stone pieces, and a PAX Event Champion pin. A great thanks to all the other participants and the other 3 members of the USTA Board that helped organize the event. If you didn't make it to this event, hopefully you can make it to the next one!

The Tak meetings were all productive and positive, and we hope to have news to share with the community as the plans we discussed are brought to life.

I got to demo Tak to a few people, one of whom really took a shine to it. My puzzle for tonight comes from our first game. We called 'tak' and talked about strategy during each move, so the game went to flats, giving me a chance to talk about that aspect of the game (which I don't normally get to do during a demo game). I thought this would make a nice introductory Gaelet puzzle. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a Gaelet is a forced flat win, as opposed to a forced road win (Tinue).
With a Tinue puzzle, you use 'tak' threats to force your opponent's hand; in a Gaelet puzzle, you use 'tak' threats as well as the threat of placing your last stone or filling the board.

Since you can't see the stones remaining or some of the stacks that clearly, I made this into a ptn.ninja frame below:

I should be back to my normal schedule now and be posting every Saturday evening (Eastern).

Thanks and enjoy!