[pbmserv] Quoridor Tourney and Rules

[Randall Bart <barticus@att.net>]

We had a Quoridor tournament starting in January this year.  When it ended 
I asked when there would ba another and was told it might be an annual 
event.  I don't recall who ran it last time (but the name Mark Thompson 
comes to mind).

Will there be another tournament?  If so when?  I just finished a bunch of 
Quoridor games so I'm thinking I want to do one more round of games to warm 
up for the tournament.

I would like to suggest a change in the rules of Quoridor.  I think it 
would be better with 9 walls per player instead of 10.  The publisher was 
including four player rules with 5 walls per player, so the set has 20 
walls, but that is happenstance.  I have been trying to get my opponents to 
run out of walls, and it hardly ever happens.  You could call this whining; 
I found a strategy that keeps failing and I am trying to change the rules 
to fit my strategy, but I think that running out of walls should be an 
important part of the game.  I think 12 is the limit for competent play; 
there is no difference between having 12 walls and 20.  There's a trifling 
difference between 12 and 11, a slightly larger difference between 11 and 
10, but a significant difference between 10 and 9.  From what I have seen, 
9 is the tipping point.

A few centuries back, the great Go players of the world decided the board 
should be 19x19 rather than 17x17.  More recently players of Trax and Zertz 
decided those games needed more space.  Perhaps some day players of 
Quoridor will decide to play on an 11x11 board (with 12 or 13 walls per 
player).  I am satisfied with the size of the Quoridor board, but I think 
great players will find it better with 9 walls.

Of course the server needs to support the game as it is currently played, 
so there should be an option on the challenge command, eg

Quoridor challenge -walls:9 me you

For right now I am taking challenges to warm up for the tournament I hope 
is coming.  You can challenge me to single games or pairs:

Quoridor challenge <you> barticus
Quoridor challenge barticus <you>

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