by Sharon Cichelli and Jonathan Leistiko
Object
Form a straight, contiguous horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line of at least five pieces of your color.
You Need
- an Eight-by-Eight board (Rules included with board in PDF.)
- four sets of 25 tokens in red, yellow, green, and blue.
- one eight-sided die
Setup
Put the Eight-by-Eight board and die in the middle of the table where everyone can reach them.
Pick a player to go first. This player gets the red tokens. Play passes to the left. The second player gets the yellow pieces. If there are third and fourth players, they get green and blue, respectively.
Play
The game starts with the first player, and proceeds to the left, in spectrum (red, yellow, green, blue) order. A complete round occurs when all players have taken a turn. Players take turns, two to four turns make a round, and at least five rounds make a game.
Roll
Roll the die at the start of your turn. The number on the die tells you which row and column you can play in. For example, if you roll a three, you may play a piece in the third column or the third row.
Place a Piece
Place one of your pieces in a vacant space in the column or row you rolled.
Example: Sharon rolls a 5. She decides to place a piece at 4,5 to block Jonathan and set up two potential diagonals.
Simple, right? Well, there’s one more rule…
Blackouts
If you roll a number you don’t want to use, you can black out that number and re-roll. To black out a number, place one of your pieces on the black dot above the number you rolled. If you ever roll a number you’ve blacked out, your turn ends immediately. Numbers you black out only apply to you – not the other players.
Example: Jonathan rolls an 8. He was really hoping to roll a 5 or a 6 to block Sharon’s four-in-a-row diagonal by placing a piece at 5,6. Jonathan places one of his pieces on the black spot above 8 (thereby blacking out 8) and re-rolls [1]. Jonathan gets a 1, mutters grumpily, and blacks out 1 [2]. On his third roll, Jonathan gets a 6 and places a piece at 5,6 to block Sharon [3]. Later in the game, Jonathan rolls an 8 at the start of his turn. His turn instantly ends and it’s Sharon’s turn again.
Ending the Game and Winning
If you have five or more of your pieces in a contiguous horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line at the end of your turn, you’ve triggered the end of the game. The game ends at the end of this round. If you’re the player with the most pieces in a contiguous line, you win! If more than one player has the same number of pieces in a contiguous line, the tied player with the most blacked-out numbers wins. If there’s still a tie, the tied player with the most pieces on the board wins. If there’s still a tie, all tied players win.
Origin & Credits
Sharon and Jonathan made up Eight-by-Eight on or around June 4th, 2010 during a fantastic date in Georgetown, TX consisting of an excellent dinner at the Monument Cafe and a stroll around the Georgetown town square with a live big band playing classic hits such as Unforgettable, In The Mood, and Pennsylvania 6-5000.
