Achi: A Strange Game of Tic Tac Toe

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Achi: A Strange Game of Tic Tac ToeDownload

What you need

Game board
4 game pieces for each person/team

What to do

If there are more than 2 people, divide into teams. Decide who goes first.
Take turns placing a piece on the game board. The goal is to get three of your game pieces in a row.
If no one has three pieces in a row after all eight game pieces have been placed, the players will start taking turns moving pieces.
During their turn, a player slides a game piece along a line to an empty space. You cannot jump over another piece or skip a turn.
Keep taking turns until a player has made three in a row of his color.

What to ask

Look for the pattern of the winning strategy. What patterns did you find?
How can you be sure to always win?
Does it make a difference who goes first?

Did you know?

The ability to predict possible events and consequences helps in making choices. Playing games and using strategies to win are ways that we learn to gather data and make predictions. We say to ourselves, “If I move here and then she moves here, then I can do this or that.” These reflective strategies players use during a game like chess or checkers, where strategy is the key, are ways to develop this kind of mathematical thinking. State your thinking strategy out loud to help others develop theirs.