MindSports

Here you'll find a number combinatorial sets that tile a plane. The China Labyrinth & derivates, Q-bix, TriBrix and StarCubes were invented by Christian Freeling. The China Labyrinth's transcendental concept was first perceived by Martin Medema. Trix and Pentiles were invented by Ed van Zon.

• The China Labyrinth is a unique combinatorial puzzle and a basis for the game of Dominions and puzzles like the Octopuszle, BackSlide and various generalizations. It emerged from the world of abstract games and puzzles, without any a priori connection to the I Ching. Its deep-rooted relationship with the Great Book was discovered only afterwards.
• Play online: BackSlide - an implementation of the 15-puzzle, but with a twist.
• Q-bix - 15 pieces with hundreds of solved problems in a wide range of categories.
• Starcubes - Again a logically complete set of pieces, 18 this time, taken from a different yet similar tesselation. It's flexibility not quite matches Q-bix's, but in terms of visual dexterity it is more demanding. It also allows for two different types of solution, full unit and split unit, each with its own visual charm.
• TriBrix - Also 18 pieces, now taken from the square grid. A handy set and quite flexible as far as squares go.
• Trix - Place zero to three hexagons around a triangle and zero to six triangles around a hexagon, remove one of the two one-on-one's that feature in both sets, and you've got the 16 pieces of Trix. The challenge is to fill a number of fixed shapes.
• Pentiles - Two 5-cornered shapes that both neatly fill a plane gave rise to two visually very challenging puzzles.


• Vexed - This is a blatant ripp-off of the Palm game Vexed, a series of logic puzzles invented in 1999 by James McCombe and further developed by the Vexed SourceForge Project. It's easy to learn, but hard to master.