Ketchup

• Board
• Objective
• Play
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Ketchup is played on a hexagonal board with five cells per side. Larger boards can be used for a deeper game.

The winner of the game is the player with the largest group of stones when the game ends (group of stones is a set of same-colored stones touching each other).

The game begins with an empty board.

There are two players in the game: Ketchup (red stones) and Wasabi (green stones).

On the first turn of the game, Ketchup must place 2 red stones in any two empty cells. Ketchup now has the largest group of stones on the board (either two groups of one stone or one group of two stones).

From then on, starting with Wasabi, the players take their turns placing 2 or 3 stones (in any empty cell) per turn depending on which player has the largest group of stones on the board:

• the player with the largest group of stones on the board must put 2 stones of his color per turn;
• the player without the largest group must either put 3 stones per turn or pass. The player may not place his stones such that at the end of the turn his largest group is the same size as his opponent's largest group.

The game ends when a player cannot make his move, i.e. when the board is full or there is not enough space to put the required number of stones.

• Ketchup rules in Nicholas Bentley's blog.