Hello, my name is
Christian Freeling and I've invented a couple of Go-related games that can be found at
Sensei's Library. Medusa -
Lotus -
DominionsMedusa, Lotus and Dominions are ornamental variants quietly orbiting the outer edges of the Golar System. They all feature
othelloanian capture and require either an exotic board or an exotic set of pieces. Only Dominions can be played turnbased, at
mindsports.
HavannahHavannah is not Go-related at all, but long ago someone thought otherwise and posted it at Sensei's, and since Hex is featured too, this is arguable.
Little Golem is a good site to play Havannah online.
SympleSymple not a Go variant but a thematic merger of
'territory' and
'dynamic connection', embracing the latter in favor of capture. It is the cradle of an innovative move protocol that subsequently found its way into Sygo. It can be played on a regular goban, though
playing turnbased releases players of keeping track of moves and the count. The game is a joint effort of
Benedikt Rosenau and me and
the story of its discovery is well documented.
SygoSygo's invention followed about a week after Symple's discovery, by applying the latter's move protocol to
'Go with othelloanian capture' and therewith implicitly (not to say
surprisingly) solving the difficulties of getting eyespace, that characterize this non-cyclic form of capture. Sygo is free of cycles and
fast and can be
played turnbased at mindsports.
AcknowledgementI stopped inventing games and wouldn't have bothered the Go community with the oldies, but Sygo and Symple are recent games and may be of interest to those who like to consider variants. Personally I find Symple more intruiging because of the
strategical dilemma it's thematic blend provides. However, for Go players who are interested I would suggest to have a look at Sygo first and later decide if it provides any incentive to investigate Symple.
To make it easy I've posted a
Sygo introductory game against
Michael Stevenson and provided some comments.
christian