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Vying Games : Phutball

Philospher's Football, or Phutball, was invented by mathematician John Conway. It is described in 1982's Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays by Elwyn R Berlekamp, John H Conway, and Richard K Guy.

How to Play

Phutball can be played on a Go board, though the dimensions should really be narrower. The consensus seems to be in favor of a 15x19 board. Here at Vying Games the board is actually 15x21, but the top and bottom lines are considered off the board.

The object of Philosopher's Football, as one would expect, is to score a goal. The white stone represents the ball, and is placed at the center of the board at the beginning of each game. Then the two players, Ohs (O) and Eks (X) take turns placing black stones at any intersection on the board. The black stones represent the football players. In Philosopher's football, the players have no allegiance to either Ohs or Eks.

Jumping

On your turn you may opt to move the ball instead of placing another man on the field. The ball moves by jumping over players. One or more players may be jumped in a straight line. After each jump the men are removed from the field. You may make as many jumps as you like on your turn. You are not required to use all available jumps. If you'd like to stop before all jumps have been exhausted, press the Pass button, to the lower-right of the board.

Goal and Goal-Line

The top and bottom lines are the goals. The lines next to them are the goal lines. If the ball stops on either the goal or the goal line a goal has been scored, and the game is over. During jumping, the ball can stop momentarily on the goal line. If it is immediately jumped back into the field of play, no goal is scored.

The goal is also special in that it is not really considered part of the field of play. Neither player may place men onto the goals (though it is acceptable for men to be placed at the goal lines).

Ohs moves first. The board is rotated such that you'll always be driving the ball towards the top goal. However, when reviewing games, Ohs is always displayed as moving towards the top goal, and Eks towards the bottom goal.

There's a compass of sorts on the right side of the board that will point the direction that the ball should be moved.