Quad - a challenging new alignment game

Introduction

Quad is a new game and the goal is to achieve four-in-a-row; a quad (the word 'quad,' or 'quadruplet,' means "a combination of four of a kind"). The game is played on a chess/checkers board, alternatively the smallest Go board, when the 8x8 cells are used. Diagonals don't count. Counters are dropped on the board, one by one. White must always drop the second counter on the rim (to reduce first-move advantage). After all counters have been dropped, they can move one step orthogonally in all directions. An enemy counter is captured by surrounding it with two of one's own, either horizontally or vertically (so called interception-capture). Capture is not mandatory. Similar to Go-Moku, 'overlines' don't count (i.e., 5-in-a-row, or more). Stalemating or reducing enemy stones to zero also count as win, but this occurs very seldom. Three-times repetition of a position, with the same player to move, results in a draw.

Discussion

The dropping phase is more demanding in Quad than in Quint, since merely 4 counters in a row is enough for a win. Despite the fact that only orthogonals are used this game is quite tricky.

The game can be played with differing amounts of counters. I have implemented versions with 12, 15, 20, and 25 counters. Possibly, it could occur that both opponents' counters are reduced to less than four, but the game doesn't stop there because one could still win by way of stalemate or by removing all the opponent's counters.

You can download my free Quad program here (updated 2005-12-19), but you must own the software Zillions of Games to be able to run it.

© M. Winther 2005