Fox and geese

Three games on the fox and geese board

Fox and geese — from the book's pages

• The fox and the geese are set up as in the picture: seventeen geese in the top arm, the row below it and at the ends of the row below that again, the fox in the middle. Lots are drawn for who gets the fox; the fox has the first move.
• The fox moves in every direction — forwards, backwards, sideways and diagonally — and kills the geese by jumping over one at a time to an empty hole. Several leaps in one move are allowed, but the fox is under no obligation to capture. A captured goose is removed from the board.
• The geese advance forwards or sideways, never diagonally or backwards, one step per move. They cannot jump over the fox, but try to hem him in so that he cannot be moved.
• The fox has won when twelve geese are killed; the geese when the fox cannot move.

Wildebeest — from the book's pages

• A game for two, devised for the fox and geese board by León Vié. Twelve marbles each in their own colour, placed in turn in any free hole — but never two of your own next to each other on the same line. The rule can prevent all the pieces from coming into play.
• Once all the pieces are placed, each player moves a marble horizontally or vertically to get three in a row, a «wildebeest». He then eats one of the opponent's pieces. The first to have eaten all the other's marbles has won.

A moving problem — from the book's pages

• Two players with eight marbles each, placed as in the picture. The game is to move all your marbles to where the opponent's stood. Either with a playing time of 15 minutes — whoever then has the most marbles in the opponent's holes wins — or until one has first occupied the other's territory.

My choices

• Fox and geese: ends in a draw after fifty moves in which no goose is killed and no goose has moved forward. The geese that can move are marked; the fox shows every hole he can reach, with the jumps along the way.
• Wildebeest: «next to each other» is read as neighbouring holes along a line, horizontally or vertically. A player who cannot place passes. Three in a row counts when the marble that moves forms the row. If no one can move, he passes.
• The moving problem: the book gives no rule for moving, so here a marble goes one hole straight ahead, or jumps straight over any marble to the empty hole beyond, in chains. The 15-minute clock can be switched on under «New game».
• The machine looks a few moves ahead in all three.

New game