THE OFFICAL RULES OF TWIXT

Twixt is a two-player game, invented by Alex Randolph.

The board is a 24x24 grid of holes, minus the corner holes.
The rows around the edges of the board are referred to as border rows.
The red border rows are along the "top" and "bottom," and the black border rows
are along the left and right edges. (Some sets may use different colors.)

Each player has a collection of pegs and links of their color.
40 of each piece, a total of 160 pieces, is an ample supply.

The board is empty at the start. Red moves first. On your turn you may:

0. Remove as many of YOUR OWN links from the board as you wish.
   This is rarely done, but sometimes you need the "elbow room."

1. Place one peg of your color in any vacant hole EXCEPT you may not play in
   either of your opponent's border rows.

2. Add as many legal links between pegs of your color as you wish. A link is
   legal when the two pegs are at opposite corners of a six-hole rectangle
   (like a knight's move in chess), and no other link crosses the linking
   path, not even one of your own.

After Red places the first peg on the board, the opponent has the option to
either respond normally as Black, or swap sides. If sides are swapped, the
player who moved first as Red is now Black, and makes the next move. Sides may
be swapped only once per game. If the 2nd player chooses not to swap after
Red's first move, then sides may not be swapped at all that game. (The purpose
of this rule is to reduce the first move advantage, making the game more fair.)

The object is to connect a peg in one of your border rows to a peg in your
other border row, with a continuous chain of linked pegs. If neither side can
achieve this, the game is a draw.


FOUR-PLAYER VARIANT: See the 3M rules for details. If sides are swapped in a
four-player game, the board may be rotated a quarter turn if all players
agree, and play then continues with the partner of the player who made the
first move. 


ROW HANDICAPPING: Two players of differing strengths can both enjoy a
challenging game, if a handicap is given. The smallest handicap is to play
without the swap option. Beyond that, one dimension of the grid is reduced,
bringing one of the red border rows closer to the other. For example, a six-row
handicap would occur on a 24x18 grid of holes. The new location of the border
row could be indicated by two tokens, which are clearly NOT Twixt pieces,
placed over top of the new corner holes (which are out of play for this game.)
Or, a very large rubber band might be stretched across the board to indicate
the new red border. The weaker player should always move first, to be certain
of receiving a handicap. Of course, the swap option is never available in a
handicap game.