Marienbad help

Introduction

Marienbad matches is a strategy game which is played by two persons, spreading on a table 16 matches in 4 rows ( 7, 5, 3 and 1 matches). Players must take one after other one or several matches in one row, and the player who takes the last one is the loser (see the game rule).

It belong to Nim strategy games and was popularized in 1961 by the film "Last year at Marienbad". There are many variations of this game, this program retains by default the variant played in the film, but thanks to preferences you can change the number of matches and even decide that the one who takes the last match is the winner.

Two persons may play, or you may play alone, second player game being done by an automate operated by the program.

It is a brain game, analyzing situation you may develop a strategy which allows you to win or gives you chances to win.

Help content:

The game rule

The program

The game screen

The preferences screen

The players list screen

Strategy – the principles

Strategy – the states

Strategy – the situation evaluation

Strategy – the best stroke research

Strategy – case of pre-finishing or finishing states