Glass bead game
From Wikimanqala
Glass bead game
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| © mid-1980s, Christian Freeling |
| The Netherlands |
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| Published rules |
| Variant of oware |
| One cycle |
| Single lap |
| 5 holes per row |
| Two rows |
The Glass Bead Game was invented in the mid-1980s by the Dutch game inventor Christian Freeling.
Its name was taken from Hermann Hesse's world-famous novel Das Glasperlenspiel, which was written in 1943. In the same year, Hesse was put on the Black List of the Nazis. Three years later, the "Tausendjähriges Reich" of the Nazis was reduced to ashes and Hesse received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The glass bead game is closely related to oware.
Both games have in common:
- two-rank board
- two fields
- single-lap movement
- counterclockwise movement
- the emptied hole is not filled again in a move
- a hole with two pieces is "ripe"
- you can capture from a chain of holes as long as they are all "ripe" and on the opponent's side of the board
- in certain situations you must feed the opponent
Glass bead game differs, however, in the following:
- it is played on a 2x5=10 board
- there are six different kinds of pieces
- you can capture from your opponent's store
- the exact timing of ending a game can be extremely difficult
- draws are not possible
The exact rules and sample games are given on Christian's homepage.
A hole containing six different pieces can be emptied in 6! ways (6! =1x2x3x4x5x6=720).
Sometimes, board positions arise in which more than 100,000 different moves are possible. While this feature makes the game computer-resistant (brute-force wouldn't work), it does not harm human play.
References
- Schmittberger, R. W.
- (1992) New Rules for Classic Games, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pages 84-87.
- Zon, E. van.
- (2003) 'Glass Bead Game', in Mindsports.net. [Web site]
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| This article is in need of improvement: rules needed. |
