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Ketchup
Ketchup is a territory game invented by Nick Bentley in 2011.

Terminology
  • Group: a set of connected, like-colored stones on the board.
  • Group size: the number of stones that a group contains. The smallest possible group has a size of 1. The diagram on the right shows three groups with sizes 1, 3, and 12.
  • To drop: to place a stone on any empty space.

Rules
The game starts on an empty board. There are two players, white and black.
Initial positionInitial position
  • White begins by dropping a single stone.
  • From then on, starting with Black, each player drops two stones on his turn.
  • If the largest group on the board, irrespective of color, is larger at the end of your turn than at the beginning, your opponent may drop up to 3 stones on his next turn (and only on his next turn).
  • The game ends when the board is full. The player with the largest group wins. If the players’ largest groups are the same size, compare their second-largest groups, and so on, until you come to a pair which aren't the same size. Whoever owns the larger of the two wins. Ketchup cannot end in a draw.

Note
Ketchup is a territory game using a somewhat unusual definition of territory. As long as they differ in size, players' territories consists of their largest groups. If these are the same size, then players' territories consists of their largest groups plus their 'next in size' (which may be the same size as the previous one), unless these territories are equal in size too, in which case the groups next in size are considered and so on, till an unequal territorycount results. A very strong incentive to always keep an eye on the overall situation, and not focus on the largest group alone.

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External links
Actually it isn't.

Ketchup © Nick Bentley
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