Y

Copyright (c) 1953 Charles Titus and Craige Schensted

The game is played on an empty 10x10 triangular hexboard. Each player drop a stone into an empty cell.

GOAL - The game is won by the first player to build a chain of stones of his color which connects the three sides of the playing field. CORNER - A corner cell counts as belonging to two sides. SWAP - After the 1st move, the 2nd player has the right to swap positions. This rule prevents the 1st player  from playing to the center of the field at the first move and getting in this way a strong advantage.

 

An example Black has a winning position. White cannot stop Black from winning in 4 turns.

There is a ZRF to play Y with Zillions. Check also Hex and Poly-Y.

A variant is Caeth Y where players take a little longer to control each cell: [from www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/caethy.html]
 

                            1- *
                           2- / \
                          3- *-.-*
                         4- / \ / \
                        5- *-.-*-.-*
                       6- / \ / \ / \
                      7- *-.-*-.-*-.-*
                     8- / \ / \ / \ / \
                    9- *-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*
                  10- / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
                 11- *-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*
                12- / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
               13- *-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*
              14- / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
             15- *-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*
            16- / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
           17- *-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*
                \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
                 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q
      

Players alternate turns, capturing an edge between two vertices on each of their turns. When a player controls half or more of the edges leading into a vertex, they gain control of that vertex. (Specifically in Caeth Y: control of one edge into a corner vertex, two edges into a side vertex, or three edges into a centre vertex are enough for control.) As in Y, the goal is to make a connected chain of vertices that touches all three sides of the board; the three corners count as members of both sides to which they are adjacent. Note that the connected chain is a chain of vertices, not of edges. The second player may utilize the swap rule if they so desire.

Triangular Y use a modification of the Love mutator: each player drops a triangle group of three pieces (two of his own color) on empty cells. A triangle may also be dropped with pieces overlapping other triangles provided the colors do not change, and at least one previously empty cell could not have been filled by a regular move (this to provide access to all cells, and guarantee that the game ends).

Here's one match:

                              __Bo__   __Jx__ 
            .              1. g11 ne   r10 nw
           . .             2. j8  se   p6  sw
          . . .            3. j4  se   l6  s
         x o . .           4. m9  se   o9  n
        . o . . .          5. p12 s    m11 se
       . . o x o .         6. resign  
      . . x x x . .        7. 
     . . x o x x . .       8. 
    . . . o x o x . .      9. 
   . . o . . o x o . .    10. 
  . . x o . O X . . . .   11. 
 . . . . . . X x . . . .  12. 
. . . . . . . o o . . . . 13. 
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy

Y is very suitable to use with progressive mutators. The 122*, the 123* and the slow 122344566788... sequences produce very nice games, if we add a restriction: every dropped stone from the same sequence must belong to different groups.

Tri-Y is a 2-out-of-3 simultaneous games of Y, where players must choose where to play. It was proposed by Bill Taylor in 2008.

• Three games of Y are played in parallel, the overall winner being whoever wins two or more games.
• On each turn after the first, a player makes two moves in different boards, which may not be the same two boards as his immediately preceding turn.
• The first move in a board may not be the very centre point.

                                                     ___Bo__________Jx___
      .                O                .        1.  ...  Bh4    Af6  Ch6
 A   . .          B   x o          C   . .       2.  Ag5  Cg5    Bg5  Cf6
    . o x            x . .            . . .      3.  Ah6  Bi5    Ai7  Bh6
   . o x .          . . o .          . . . .     4.  Ag7  Ci5    Bj6  Cj6
  . . o x .        . . x o o        O o o o o    5.  Bk5  Ce5    Ah4  Cd6
 . . x o . .      . . . x x o      . x x x x x   6.  Af4  Bl6    Ai5  Bk7
. . . o x . .    . . . . . x o    . . . . . . .  7.  Bm7  Ck5    Cl6  Be3
abcdefghijklm    abcdefghijklm    abcdefghijklm  8.  Ag3  Bh2    Bf2  Ai3
                                                 9.  Bg1  Cc5    resign

Crunching Y  This is a 2013 variant by Bill Taylor and João Pedro Neto, incorporating phalanxes and capturing into the classic Y connection game:

• A line of stones may move in its own direction, any number of spaces up to its own length.
• Any friendly stones encountered during the move halt the movement.
• Any same-direction line of opponent stones encountered may have the nearest stones killed by replacement, the maximum number to be killed being the difference of the two lengths, with the move stopping only after a maximum such kill or before the first blank after any kill.
• A turn consists of either
  • the placement of three NON-LINEAR stones on empty cells
  • one move of the above type, followed by a placement
• The winner is whoever first makes a connected Y-path.

 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDE    ___Bill-X____ ____JOA-O___
 . . . . . . . . . , . . o . . . 1. --- p7  p9      r6 r8 u7
  . . . . . . x . , . . o . . .  2. n6  n8  q9      p4 t6 q7
   . . . . . x O o o . o . . .   3. o5  s7  o9      q3 l4 t8
    . . . o o x o o o o . . .    4. l8  o7  p10     o3 u5 v8
     o o o . . o o o . . . .     5. p10:r8  m7      r2 v4 q5
      . . . . O x o x . . .      6. l8:p4   l8      r6:p4 t4
       . . . O x . x x . .       7. l8::v8  r6      w3 r4 i5
        . . x x . x x x .        8. o9:q7   p10     n2 s3 j4
         . . . . x . x .         9. p8:t4   o11     n2:r6 x2
          . . . x . . .         10. t4:r6   n8      u8:s5 g5
           . . x . . .          11. l8  u9  n12     e5 m3 t4
            . x . . .           12. p6:m3   p6      o3:r6 x4
             . . . .            13. n2  o5  m13     x4:n4 y1
              . . .             14. p6:n9   p6      u5:o5 s1
               . .              15. m13:t6  u7      s1:m7 o3
                .               16. (*)
 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDE

(*) in the next turn, black can capture four stones by moving its phalanx n12-t6 up to x2

Direct-Move Y implements an idea where the area of the adversary's last move determines the area where the player must move. The game was proposed by Craig Duncan and Bill Taylor c.2020:

• The object and procedure is as for Y.

• Pie rule applies.

• The move mechanic is, that a player must play within the triangle as is directed by his opponent's last move's
  position within it's own triangle.

• If the opponent stone was in more than one triangle, the player may choose which to count it as (provided there is
  a space there).

• If all such triangles have no empty cells, then the player may choose any empty cell on the board.

                         _
                        / \
                       / o \     1
                      /     \
                     /       \ _
                  _ / o     o / \   2
                 / \         / \ \
                / / \       /   \ \
               / / o \   J /   J \ \   3
              / '-----\---/-------' \
             /         \ /           \
            /   o     o \ _ o     o   \   4
           / _         / / \         _ \
          / / \       / / \ \       / \ \
         / / o \   J / / J \ \ o   / B \ \   5
        '-/-----\---/-/-----' \   /     \ \
         /       \  ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\¯/¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\¯
        / o     o \ / B     B   \ B     o \     6
       /           /           / \         \
      /           / \         /   \         \
     / o     o   / B \   o   / o   \ J     o \    7
    /           '-----\-----/-------'         \
   '-------------------'    '------------------'
       a  b  c  d  e  f  g  h  i  j  k  l  m

  Some initial moves:

   ____BB___JJ____
   1.  e7   k7
   2.  h6   i3
   3.  k5   g3
   4.  f6   g5
   5.  j6   e5