The game of Dominions derives from the China Labyrinth.
It took form when I started to look at the lines on the pieces as liberties in a Go-type game.
I went through the game in my mind before making the required double faced sets and eventually spotted the necessity of limiting the possibilities
for extending from one's own groups. After that its character somewhat reluctantly explained itself.
It took me two games on a table in 1980 to see that a board was needed: without 'eye space' newly started groups stand no chance agains a big one.
And in empty space, eye space is hard to come by. The border plays an essential role in the development of eye space and the boardsize turned
out to be critical: 169 is clearly too crammed and 271 already shows its significanc wane.
After six more games (that only took place after the game had remained on the shelf for more than two decades, waiting for an applet) a
well hidden bug was spotted and removed, to finally unlock this very unusual game.
Dominions © MindSports
Applet © Ed van Zon
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