Atomorph

Atomorph is a drawless connection game for two players: Black and White. It is played on the intersections (points) of an initially empty square grid (board). The top and bottom edges of the board are colored black; the left and right edges are colored white. DefinitionsA stone in a corner of the board is weak if it is orthogonally adjacent to two enemy stones. A white stone is also weak if there are three black stones such that one of them is vertically adjacent to the white stone, one of them is horizontally adjacent to the white stone and one of them is diagonally adjacent to the white stone, provided that the latter black stone is adjacent to exactly one of the other two black stones. Likewise, with colors reversed, for weak black stones. A weak stone is contested if an enemy stone in its place would also be weak. PlayBlack plays first, then turns alternate. On your turn, place a stone of your color on an empty point or replace (flip) a weak enemy stone with a stone of your color. You cannot flip a contested stone if your opponent just flipped a contested stone anywhere on the board. Passing is not allowed, but, if you have no legal moves available, your turn is skipped. You win if there is a chain of orthogonally connected stones of your color touching the two opposite board edges of your color. To make the game fair, White will have the option, on their first turn only, to swap sides with Black instead of making a regular move. Variants For a simpler but still drawless game, never flip contested stones. For a simpler game with exactly two drawn positions (whether flipping contested stones is allowed or not), never flip stones in the corners of the board. To make defense stronger, when you remove an enemy stone and there are empty points on the board, place the removed stone next to the board. On their next turn, your opponent must place the stone back on an empty point of the board and then make a regular move. —description from the designer