Chomp — don't eat the poisoned square
A chocolate bar of squares, with the bottom-left square poisoned. Each bite takes a square and everything above and to the right of it. Whoever has to take the poisoned square loses.
From Chomp, a game by David Gale.
What it shows a designer
The first player can always win, yet on most bars nobody knows how. It shows the difference between knowing a strategy exists and finding it, which is often where play lives.
Credits
- Made by
- David Gale, described in 1973
- Sources
- pi.math.cornell.edu/~mec/2003-2004/graphtheory/chomp/howtoplaychomp.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chomp
What you need
- paper with a rectangle of squares, 5 by 6
- a pen
How to play
- The bar. Draw a rectangle of 5 rows by 6 columns. Mark the bottom-left square as poison.
- A bite. Take turns choosing any remaining square. Cross it out, along with every square above it and to its right.
- Lose. Whoever crosses out the poisoned square loses.
- Again. Play a few times, and try a 2 by 6 bar to look for a pattern.
After playing, talk about
- Is going first better here? Why?
- Did you find a shape you wanted to leave your opponent?
- What did the 2 by 6 bar show you?
Its blocks
Download it as a design (.md)In boardgameBuilder, Open game puts its blocks on the canvas. Changed, the same file can come back here from Propose a game.