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The hex grid has too many liberties to transpose the game of Go to it as is. There have been several methods to reduce that number of which we implemented Luis Bolaños Mures' game Keil and my own game Medusa. The latter solves the problem by using a hexagonal sub-grid of 'holes', cells that bring the numbers of liberties back to the familiar 4, 3 and 2 for the inner area, the edges and the corners respectively. <<< The Medusa board Medusa is one of my first games, invented in the early eighties, and its distribution plays a role in the emergence of XiaGo. |
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In 2020, while looking at the Medusa board, I suddenly thought "what if the 'holes' were movable impartial neutral pieces whose only function is to reduce the average number of liberties"? And that was it, basically. Except that by introducing a small array of new tactics, these neutrals did more than just reduce the average number of liberties. There are other major differences between the two games. Medusa features othelloanian capture and a move option for groups while XiaGo has Go-like capture and a move option for 'holes' rather than groups. XiaGo solves the 'excess of liberties' problem of the hexgrid literally in the most flexible way and its additional tactics merge flawlessly with its territorial goal. |
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