• Havannah
    My second game, after the first one ended up like Frankenstein's monster, was a quest for simplicity. Hex was chosen as a starting point because it didn't come much simpler than that, in terms of rules. A hexagonal board was chosen to get away from Hex.
    There was this half hour in which several winning conditions were reviewed, before three of them merged into Havannah. I immediately knew I had my game.

    This is a game between Mirko Rahn (white) and Pascal Huybers (black). I'll leave it without comments, except to say that both are excellent players.
    no Sound  -  show move#
    Broken canvas...
    to move
       
     
       
     

    Mirko Rahn (white) - Pascal Huybers (1-0)

    It should be noted that Havannah didn't emerge from any a priori concept. It was just a lucky merger of three winning conditions. Typically, the game is not invariant to board size because the relationships of these conditions change with it. At base-10 the game is deep and wide, while the pie rule provides a good balance.