Overview

Players take turns playing cards which allow them to place stones on the board. Although each player has a color-- one is black, the other is white-- the cards force them to place some of their opponent's stones along with their own. The winner is the first player to get 8 stones in a row.

What You'll Need

• a Go board with a compliment of black and white stones
• a Go*Mofasta deck

You can use a Pente set rather than a Go set if you like, but you may find that there aren't enough stones. You'll also have to specify which colour will count as 'black' and which will count as 'white.'

The PDF file contains 9 cards. These make enough of a deck to play. If you are bothered by the amount of shuffling, you can make the deck 18 or 27 cards by printing multiple copies.

• Download The Deck (23K PDF)
• Tips for printing out cards

Starting the Game

The game begins with no stones on the board. The deck is shuffled, and each player is dealt 3 cards. Players decide in some equitable way who goes first. That player takes the first turn and plays the black stones. Players alternate turns until one has 8 stones in a row or until the board is filled.

Taking a Turn

Each card depicts a 2x2 arrangement of stones-- some black, some white. On your turn, play one card from your hand and put 4 stones somewhere on the board as depicted on the card you've played. You may rotate the card to whatever orientation you like and play the stones into any 2x2 block of unoccupied spaces, but you must play all 4 stones as shown.

After placing the four stones, place more stones of your own color if you have closed any eyes (see below).

Discard the card that you played and draw another card, maintaining a 3 card hand. If there are no cards left in the deck, reshuffle the discard pile before drawing.

It may be tempting never to play the cards that show 3 of your opponent's stones and only 1 of yours. However, such a strategy will leave you first with only two cards to choose from, then only one card to play, and perhaps finally with no move at all!

Closing an Eye

An 'eye' is group of unoccupied spaces, connected by lines. An eye is considered 'closed' if no card can be played into it-- that is, if none of the spaces comprise an open 2x2 area.

When a player makes a move which causes an eye to become closed, then that player puts stones of her own color on each space in the eye.

Example

One corner of the board looks like the one shown above, and the Black player plays the card shown. The resulting board position is given below.

A narrow strip along the edge of the board counts as an eye, and the player who closes it may be able to place a long line of stones in a single turn.

Ending the Game

The game ends as soon as there are 8 or more stones in a row of one color. The winner is the player whose stones are in such a row.

If there are 8 or more black stones in a row and also 8 or more white stones in a row, or if the board is completely filled without 8 in a row of either color, then the game ends in a draw.

About this Game

The Go*Mofasta rules and deck are ©2001-5 by P.D. Magnus. Thanks to Ryan Hickerson and Cristyn Magnus for help in playtesting. You are granted license for unlimited personal use of this game. Public distribution is encouraged, especially if it gets people playing the game. Commercial use of the cards, rules, or game without consent of the author is prohibited.