Zertz game

This has been the most efficient way of setting up the board in a way that makes sense to the way my mind works. Zertz is a very cruel game. Bad losers should be forbidden to play this game because it is very unforgiving and very tactical.

It is very difficult to calculate agressive moves basically sacrificing in order to shrink the board in the right areas and even more difficult to calculate defensive ones the art of prevent sacrifices. I often sacrifice 2 whites, 4 grays and 5 blacks just in order to WIN the game with 4 whites. Needless to say the Opponent is left with a very bad taste in the mouth and a desire to kill. Make one mistake and you're "dead, dead, dead". Home Thoughts from Josh App Support. Posted by Josh.

Labels: 7. Fabio Pinco11 February 11, at AM. Josh February 11, at AM. Fabio Pinco11 February 14, at AM. You can sacrifice 5 balls, so you have a lot of flexibility. If necessary, you can force your opponent to move each of the balls in play. Look at the following example taken from an actual game : From here, it only takes 4 balls to set up a double capture Note that all of these moves should be familiar to you from the section on simple combinations.

Nothing new is required, except the ability to look a little further ahead. With so many possibilities, I find the easiest way to do this what I call "applied wishful thinking" - first imagine the board and balls as you want them to be, then figure out a sequence of moves which will create that pattern. It is not always possible to exchange 5 balls for 2 whites, but you should look hard for such an exchange.

If you can't find a good sequence of moves, you must add another ball to the board; now your opponent may be able to exchange 8 balls for 3 whites in a single sequence of moves, winning the game in one fell swoop. In the following puzzles, you are looking to get two white balls. Give the minimum number of balls to your opponent, without exceeding 2 grey and 3 black. Good luck! Puzzle 5 Solution Puzzle 6 Solution.

Sente is a term I have stolen from go, but very useful for Zertz as well. In Zertz, a player can be said to have sente when they are not obliged to capture, and therefore have a free choice of move. A move which does not force your opponent to capture, and therefore gives the initiative to your opponent is said to be gote. Playing sente moves is a good thing, since once the board has shrunk a little, sente is probably worth two balls of your choice.

Bearing this in mind, look at the following rather crowded position taken from an actual game : By playing a white ball at A, you can set up the capture of 2 white balls in two ways: Capturing 2 white balls, and ending at B may be your first choice, but this is a gote move it gives your opponent sente.

However, if you capture 2 white balls and end at C, your opponent must recapture, leaving you with sente in the following position When the board is crowded, it is always worth looking for a combination which lets you keep sente. In order of priority: 1. Puzzle 7: sacrifice 2 black and 1 grey for a white, while keeping sente. As the board shrinks, a new strategy becomes viable; isolation. Strictly speaking, it is possible to isolate 1 or more balls at any stage in the game, but at the start of the game, it is generally much too expensive to be viable.

As the number of discs in play falls, so do the number of discs you need to remove to isolate a ball. Isolation is potentially more profitable than the exchanges I discussed before; with 3 balls on the board, an exchange can get you at most 2 white balls. By isolating balls, you can get 2 white balls starting with only 1 ball in play! There are several ways of isolating a ball or balls , each with their own benefits. I shall discuss them below. Look at the following situation: Here, you can capture the white ball by isolating it.

As with the exchanges, you have to pay your opponent some balls for the privilege. Move 1: play a ball at position A, and remove the disc marked 1. Move 2: play a ball at position A, and remove the disc marked 2. Move 3: play a ball anywhere, and remove the disc marked 3.

The white ball is now yours, for the reasonable price of 2 balls. However, this is a gote move - you have given the initiative to your opponent. A better plan may be to play a ball at position A on the third move. Now, you have exchanged 3 balls for 1 white ball in sente. This is a good thing. This situation is very similar to the previous diagram, but this time no white ball: Here, you can still capture a white ball by isolating it.

Oddly, the cost is no higher than before Move 3: play a white ball at position B, and remove the disc marked 3. However, unlike the previous example, this can only be played as a gote move. Again, you'll recognise this position; this time, though, we want to get 2 white balls: Move 1: play a ball at position A, and remove the disc marked 1.

Move 3: play a ball at position A, and remove the disc marked 3. Move 4: play a ball at position A, and remove the disc marked 4. Move 5: play a white ball at position B, and remove the disc marked 5. A bargain! Again, this is always a gote move. Note: when isolating balls, you need to give your opponent 1 fewer ball than the number of discs you want to remove. Under some circumstances you may give your opponent an extra ball to keep sente. So you're trailing Odds are, your opponent will be able to isolate a white ball on her next move for the win.

You need a miracle. Well, here it is! This is advanced stuff, but well worth the effort of mastering Look at the following diagram: From this seemingly innocuous position, we are going to isolate 2 white balls: Move 1. Place a white ball on position 6, and remove the disc marked 1. Move 2. Place a ball on position A, and remove the disc marked 2.

Move 3. Place a ball on position A, and remove the disc marked 3. Move 4. Place a ball on position A, and remove the disc marked 4. Move 5. Place a ball on position A, and remove the disc marked 5. Move 6.

Place a white ball on position A, and remove the disc marked 6. Net result; you spent 5 balls and captured 2 white balls. Of course, you could just as easily have captured 2 grey or 2 black balls, which may have allowed you to win outright. Better still; the only thing your opponent can do on his next move, is place a ball on the board, so although you have captured 2 balls in gote , your opponent must make a gote move.

This gives you the initiative again, and hopefully the win! Isolation is not usually cost-effective in the opening, but do watch for positions where there are 2 white balls together at the edge of the board: Here, we can isolate 3 white balls for an instant win! Move 1.

Place a ball at position A, and remove the disc marked 1. Move 7. Place a ball at position A, and remove the disc marked 7. After our opponent captures, the position is now: Move 8. Place a ball at position A, and remove a disc at random - 8 will do nicely.

This corrects a parity problem - we need the jump to put the white ball back in position, but we have already removed all the discs we need. Move 9. Finally, place a white ball at A and remove the disc marked below to isolate 3 white balls. Note: we have to give our opponent 8 balls - the maximum possible - to achieve this coup. Puzzle 10 Isolate 3 white balls! The opening is the most difficult aspect of Zertz.

After the first 2 moves, most positions are safe; however, after 3 moves, there is a good chance that the second player can capture 2 white balls quite cheaply see 3-ball combinations. This puts the onus on the first player to play defensively, and make this first opportunity for profit as expensive as possible. Conversely, the second player should be looking to set himself up for a double capture as cheaply as possible. The practical upshot of this is that the first player wants to restrict mobility of the balls as much as possible; a couple of methods I use are: 1.

Play the first ball in a corner, and remove an adjacent disc. For the third move, play adjacent to this ball, and again remove an adjacent disc. A nice, safe position, where player two will be hard pressed to make a profit. With 4 balls on the board, the advantage is passed back to player one. Play a white ball first in the central 7 discs, and play a white ball in the most inconvenient place you can find for your second ball.

This is rather more dangerous than the first approach, but you are trying to set up a pattern where your opponent must leave you 2 balls away from winning, either by giving you at least 1 white ball in the forthcoming exchange, or 2 greys, or 3 blacks i. After the exchange, you are looking to isolate the 2 balls you need for an instant win.

For example, look at the following position:. Finally, have a look at the following position: It is impossible to profit from this position!

Playing at any of the positions marked A will force your opponent to capture all 3 balls. Position B is almost as bad, allowing your opponent to capture any 2 balls of his choice. The positions marked C are slightly better - they allow you to choose which 2 balls your opponent gets. Once more balls have been placed on the board, this could be to your advantage see the section on sente , but not yet. Note: this positions is only possible with the co-operation of both players.

In the tournament game, the rules are unchanged apart from the following: 1. There are now 10 black balls, 8 grey balls, and 6 white balls. To win, a player needs a majority of any colour 4 white, 5 grey, or 6 black , or 3 of each colour.

To a large extent, everything I have said about the basic game applies to the tournament game as well. So, the easiest way to win is by capturing 4 white balls as opposed to 5, 6, or 9 balls , and you can give away 11 balls without losing the game. This makes 1 white ball worth about 2 balls, 2 white worth about 5, and 3 white worth about 8 - much the same as in the basic game. Unlike the basic game, you need 4 white balls to win; with 3 balls on the board, the second player would still like to capture 2 white balls, but this is no longer the crushing advantage that it was.

Assuming player 2 has just captured 2 white balls, player 1 can still give away up to 9 balls without losing the game - more than enough to isolate a couple of balls and leave the playing area empty.

So, player 2 cannot afford to give away more than 3 black and 2 grey to get 2 white. Giving away 1 white ball is no longer potentially fatal, as it was in the basic game, but if player 2 does gives away a white, player 1 has the chance to isolate 2 white balls.

Now, player 1 has 3 white balls and player 2 has captured 2 white balls, leaving 1 white ball remaining; player 2 can no longer win by capturing white balls, though the extra balls player 1 has just given him while isolating the white balls will give him other options.