Shut the box

How to play shut the box

From the book's pages

• The aim is to shut all the flaps over the nine numbered compartments. When the game starts, all are open. The opening player throws the two dice onto the felt below the row of compartments. He may add the pips together and shut that compartment, or take the dice separately and shut two compartments. If he has thrown a two and a three, he may shut two and three, or compartment five.
• A turn is over when the player cannot shut a compartment after a throw. Once only six or fewer compartments are open, only one die is thrown for the rest of the game.
• A player is out of the game when he has 45 points or more. The last one to go out wins. The game can also be played alone, as a solitaire.

My choices

• The book's sentence that «the last one to shut a flap gets one point» does not fit the 45 limit, so here each turn counts the usual way: the sum of the flaps still open when the throw fails (1 + … + 9 = 45, hence the limit). Shut them all and the turn is zero — «the box is shut».
• Each player plays the whole board in their turn, with all flaps open. The solitaire alone: the lowest sum is best, and shutting the box is the goal.
• The machines always shut the highest flaps they can.

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