Order and Chaos

The game commences with the board vacant of counters.

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

A 6x6 square grid and eighteen each of black and white counters are required for play. It could, however, be played as a paper and pencil game as the counters do move after being placed. Like Tic Tac Toe, X's and O's could be drawn on the grid to represent the different colored counters.

History

Order and Chaos was invented by Stephen Sniderman and published in Games Magazine in 1981.

Objective

One player is Order and the other is Chaos. The objective of the Order player is to get five counters of the same color in an orthogonal or diagonal row. Chaos wins if the board becomes filled without this happening.

Play

A unique feature of this game is that the different colored counters are not distinctive to either player. With alternating turns, each places places a single counter, either black or white, at any vacant position on the board. Once placed on the board, counters do not move or remove. This continues until a row of four is formed, making Order the winner; or until the board is full, making Chaos the winner.

Strategy

As in other row formation games, a line of four counters of the same color that is open at both ends is unstoppable. Order should attempt to create this structure while Chaos should watch out for it.

Sources