Square Game

Both the 6x6 and 6x7 square grids are utilized for this game. The game commences with the board vacant of counters.

Alternate Names

方棋, Fāngqí, Diūfāng (Pinyin), Xiàfāng (Pinyin)

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

This is a folk game popular in rural areas and different boards are utilized in different areas for the play of this game. Often, it is played on a designated section of the Go board. Also, a 6x6 square grid or a 6x7 square grid is common. In all of these examples, the counters are placed at the intersections making for a total of forty-nine positions on the 6x6 square grid and a total of fifty-six positions on the 6x7 square grid. Probably due to western influence, the game is also played at the cells of a orthochess or checkers board: a 8x8 square grid with sixty-four positions. Note that the total number of positions on the board being an odd or even number can have an effect on the game.

Using black and white counters designated to the two different players, each player will require a number of counters of their own color equal to half of the total number of positions on the board. On a board with an odd number of positions, the player going first will have an extra counter.

History

This game is played traditionally in the northwestern regions of China, especially Ningxia, Gansu, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Xinjiang, and other areas with a high concentrations of Muslims. The game is also played by Dungans (Muslim people of Chinese origin), who have brought the game with them to Central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. It is still popular today in rural and agricultural areas and is often played with a board drawn in the dirt with stones used as counters.

Objective

The objective of both players is to reduce their opponent to three or less counters. Once doing so the opponent is no longer able to form squares and loses the game.

Play

The game commences with the board vacant of counters. Alternate turns entail players placing a single counter at any vacant position on the board, attempting to form 2x2 squares composed of their own counters until the board is full. Players then each remove one of their opponent's counters from any position on the baord. Next, each player counts the number of 2x2 squares he or she has formed and removes an equal number of the opponent's counters that are not themselves part of a 2x2 square. After the removal of counters, players alternate turns orthogonally moving counters any number of vacant positions along a straight line while still attempting to from more 2x2 squares. Each time a player forms a square, the player can remove one of the opponent's counters that is not itself part of a 2x2 square.

Variations

As mentioned above, different sizes of boards are utilized for the play of this game. If the board used has an odd number of positions (6x6 square grid, for one), the first player has an advantage. To counteract this, the second player is allowed to remove one more counter from his or her opponent during the initial removal of counters before counting squares. The 6x7 square grid, widely used in Ningxia, probably comes about as a way to balance the the initial part of the game with its even number of positions.

Some variants prohibit repeatedly forming the same square.

There are variants reported to use the encircling mechanism of the game Go, but I am not sure how this works and at what stage of the game it takes effect.

Beacause of the folksy rural nature of the game, there are many variants, with each being local to a specific area.

Sources