Bolix

Alternate Names

Bollux or Bōku

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

A Bolix board and theoretically up to forty each of black and white counters are required for play. It is likely, however, that many less counters will be required for any game.

History

Bolix was invented by Rob Nelson, an American, around 1994. It was first published by Cadaco in 2001.

Objective

A player wins by placing five or more counters in a straight connected row.

Play

The game commences with the board empty of counters. Turns alternate with black placing first. Counters do not move once placed unless they are captured. If a player surrounds two enemy counters with two of her own by custodianship (the four counters will then be in a straight line with two of one color in the middle and two of another color at both ends), that player is then entitled to remove one of the two surrounded counters. The captured counter is then reentered back into its owner’s in-hand stock. If, by placing a single counter on his turn a player surrounds two or more groups of two enemy counters by custodianship, the player is still entitled to remove only one enemy counter of those surrounded.

If it is black’s turn in the diagram above, a counter may be placed at the position shown and this will entitle black to the capture of any one of the four white counters shown.

The Ko rule from the game of Go applies here: If you are a player whose counter has just been captured, you will be unable to replace that counter with another at the same position on your next turn. If your opponent does not place one of his own counters at that position on his next turn, however, you may replace that counter on your second turn after its capture. This prevents a repetitive deadlocked sequence of moves to be played out on the board.

Strategy

Although very similar in objective to other games such as Gomoku, it should be noted that there are only three directions in which counters may be connected in a straight line in a hexagonal field (horizontally, up-sloping diagonally, or down-sloping diagonally) as compared to four in a square or rectangular field (horizontally, up-sloping diagonally, down-sloping diagonally, or vertically). This may at first seem counter-intuitive as it seems that more possible lines should be possible in a hexagonal field. The key difference is that diagonal has a different meaning when applied to a hexagonal field and hex-diagonal connections are not permitted in this game. If they were, there would be a total of six possible directions in which counters may be connected on this board.

Variations

Sources