Description

Carteso is a finite territory game for two players: Vertical and Horizontal. It's played on the intersections (points) of an initially empty square board. The suggested board sizes are between 9x9 and 13x13 points. Both players must have access to a sufficient number of stones in two colors and a sufficient number of vertical and horizontal markers.

Carteso was designed by Luis Bolaños Mures with a negligible concept from Corey L. Clark. The game's name was suggested by David Stoner.

A group is a maximal set of like-colored, orthogonally connected stones.

A group, regardless of color, is owned by Vertical if it spans more rows than columns, and by Horizontal if it spans more columns than rows. Groups that span exactly as many rows as columns are owned by the opponent of the player who most recently placed a stone on the board.

To claim a group is to place a marker of yours on top of one of its stones.

A group is finished if its vertical and horizontal dimensions can't grow larger by means of any series of placements on empty points.

Vertical plays first, then turns alternate. On their turn, a player must either pass or place one stone of any color on an empty point. After a placement, every unclaimed finished group is claimed by its current owner.

The game ends when both players pass consecutively. A player's score is the total number of stones on the board in groups that they have claimed, plus a komi in the case of Horizontal. The player with the highest score wins.

The komi is the number of points which is added to Horizontal's score at the end of the game as a compensation for playing second. Before the game starts, the first player chooses the value of komi, and then the second player chooses sides. To avoid ties, it is suggested that komi be of the form n + 0.5, where n is a whole number.