Abstract Strategy Games
An abstract strategy game is a board game with perfect information, no chance, and (usually) two players. Many of the world's classic board games, including chess, go, and mancala, fit into this category. Play is sometimes said to resemble a series of puzzles the players pose to each other.
The "No Chance" Criterion
Although most purists believe that Abstract Strategy games cannot have any random elements, this criterion tends to be relaxed in most pragmatic classifications of games. Games such as Backgammon, Octiles, Can't Stop, or Sequence have all been termed "Abstract Strategy" at some point or another, despite their strong luck element (and even some hidden information)! The pragmatic definition seems to be that if a game is strategic and is abstract, the term Abstract Strategy should be applicable, but this irritates purists, as the analyses of such games are necessarily different.
(The analysis of a "pure" Abstract Strategy game tends to fall under Combinatorial Game Theory, while "pragmatic" abstract strategy games with luck elements are better served by Von Neumann-Morgenstern Game Theory.)
It is often pointed out that in almost all Abstract Strategy games there is still a chance element in the set-up; a game can often have many different set-ups, and certainly in practice a starting player needs to be chosen, and this is often by non-deterministic means. However, purists would tend to consider this is simply playing one of a class of highly-related games, and therefore the individual game still has no luck element.
List of Abstract Strategy games
Chess and Chess-like games
Chaturanga
Western Chess
Jangki (Korean Chess)
Makruk (Thai Chess)
Shogi
Shogi variants
Xiangqi
Janggi
Other Chess-like games
Paper and Pencil Games
- Dots and Boxes
- Noughts and Crosses, also known as Tic-Tac-Toe
Other Games
Abalone
Alak
Alquerque
The Game of the Amazons (also known as Amazons)
Andantino
Arimaa
Ataxx
Blokus
Breakthrough
Cathedral
Chinese Checkers
Connect Four
Crossings
Death Stacks
Draughts (also known as Checkers)
Entropy (1977 and 1994 games)
Epaminondas
Fanorona
Five Field Kono
Focus
Fox games, such as Foxes and geese
The Gipf project games:
Gipf
Tamsk
Z?tz
Dvonn
Yinsh
P?ct
Go
Gobblet
Gomoku - played on a Go board; can be played as a "paper and pencil game", since
once played, a piece cannot be moved or removed from play.
Gonnect
Gounki
Halma
Havannah
Hex
Hijara
Jungle
Kensington
L Game
Lines of Action
Lotus
Mak-yek
Malaika
Mancala and related games
Martian Chess (for two to six players)
Morris - Three, Six and Nine Men's Morris
Mozaic
Nim
Ninuki-renju
Orbit
Othello, also known as Reversi
Pente
Phutball
Quarto
Qubic
Quoridor
Renju
Rhumb Line
Rubik's Infinity
Rubik's Magic Strategy Game
Rhythmomachy
Spangles
Tafl games
Tanbo
Teeko
Terrace
Three Musketeers
Thud
Trax
Turnabout
TwixT
Y
External links