TwixT is a two-player strategy board game, an early entrant in the 1960s 3M bookshelf game series. It became one of the most popular and enduring games in the series. It is a connection game where players alternate turns placing pegs and links on a pegboard in an attempt to link their opposite sides. While TwixT itself is simple, the game also requires strategy, so young children can play it, but it also appeals to adults. The game has been discontinued except in Germany and Japan.
TwixT was invented as a paper and pencil game in 1957 by Alex Randolph, a game designer. When Alex was commissioned along with Sid Sackson by 3M in 1961 to start a games division, the game was issued as a boardgame, one of the first 3M bookshelf games. Avalon Hill took over publication in 1976 when 3M sold its game division. Avalon's parent company was acquired by Hasbro in 1998, and the game was discontinued. The game is no longer produced in the United States, but a succession of German companies has produced the game since the 1970s under license from Avalon.[ citation needed ] TwixT was short-listed for the first Spiel des Jahres in 1979, [1] and was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design's Hall of Fame, along with Randolph, in 2011. [2]
Twixt is played on a board comprising a 24×24 square grid of holes (minus 4 corner holes). The game has two types of playing pieces, pegs, which fit into the holes, and links, which fit into the top of the peg pieces and are used to connect to peg pieces. In the 3M edition, players are Red and Black; different sets may use different colors. The topmost and bottommost rows of holes belong to the lighter color; the leftmost and rightmost rows to the darker color.
TwixT has been proven to be PSPACE-complete for determining the game value, via a reduction from Hex. [3] TwixT has also been shown to be NP-complete regarding whether a single set of vertices can support a connecting path, via a reduction from 3-satisfiability. [4] These proofs are indicative of a complex strategy: the game has not been solved, no winning strategy has been discovered, nor is the outcome of the game with perfect play known.
On the 24×24 grid, tactical considerations tend to predominate. The opening phase is over quickly, and the rest of the game is spent attempting to tactically execute the plan. Hex, which has a very similar game object, may have more predictable tactics, but strategical considerations are much more important. In this sense, Hex is more like Go than TwixT, since a single move is generally less committal, and consequences may take longer to play out.
One variant is Twixt PP (Paper and Pencil). The rules are almost identical to standard TwixT, except links are never removed and a player's own links are allowed to cross each other. A winning path might loop across itself but crossed links are not connected to each other at the intersection. The paper and pencil rules may reduce the number of draws (which are already rare). Whether it reduces the complexity of the game or not is highly debatable.
This rules difference has no effect in terms of game outcome most of the time. For those rare situations where it does, most of those cases are where a draw under standard rules is a decisive game under PP rules. The image shows a contrived position where black is to move. Black wins under PP rules but loses under standard rules.
Row handicapping can be used to equalize the game for players of different strengths. The simplest handicap is to allow the weaker player to move first (i.e. eliminate the pie rule). Beyond that, one dimension of the grid is reduced so the weaker player has a shorter distance to span.
The game may be played on different size grids. The 12×12 board shown here leads to a very short game. On the standard board, tactics dominate; larger boards introduce deeper strategic considerations. Since most commercial sets use boards which are made from four "quadrants" which either clip together or are hinged, a 36×36 grid could be assembled from three standard sets of the same size. In Europe, there briefly appeared a TwixT knock-off called "Imuri" which used a 30×30 grid. The board had no holes, and lines were drawn to indicate where the links could be placed. This edition was removed from shelves for copyright infringement.
Mark Thompson's variant Diagonal TwixT has the same rules as standard TwixT, but the border lines run at a 45-degree angle to the grid. [5] David Bush's version has the border lines running parallel to link paths. These variants result in different tactical patterns.
The official world championships were held as part of the Mind Sports Olympiad in 1997, 1998 and 1999. [6] Since 2000 TwixT has had a major international tournament as part of the MSO but there has been no official World Championships. Between 2011 and 2022, the TwixT event at the MSO has again become the World Championships. The list of winners is given below. [7]
List of MSO champions
Alex Randolph 
Klaus Hussmanns Klaus Hussmanns Klaus Hussmanns Klaus Hussmanns Peter Henke Klaus Hussmanns
Carl J. Ragnarsson David Bush David Bush
Bharat Thakrar Bharat Thakrar David Bush Bharat Thakrar David M. Pearce
Florian Jamain
Jan Kristian Haugland Florian Jamain Florian Jamain Florian Jamain Florian Jamain Florian Jamain
Cosimo Cardellicchio David Bush Florian Jamain Florian JamainGames magazine included TwixT in their "Top 100 Games of 1980", describing it as "much more subtle and interesting than the old Bridg-It, with which it should not be confused". [8]
Games magazine included TwixT in their "Top 100 Games of 1981", noting that "The best offense, oddly enough, is a good defense." [9]
Games magazine included TwixT in their "Top 100 Games of 1982", noting that "Subtlety and finesse will win every time against straightforward aggression in this game of great depth and varied tactics." [10]
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Havannah is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Christian Freeling. It belongs to the family of games commonly called connection games; its relatives include Hex and TwixT. Havannah has "a sophisticated and varied strategy" and is best played on a base-10 hexagonal board, 10 hex cells to a side.
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Star is a two-player abstract strategy board game developed by Craige Schensted. It was first published in the September 1983 issue of Games magazine. It is a connection game similar to Hex, Y, Havannah, and TwixT. Unlike these games, however, the result is based on a player having a higher final score rather than achieving a specific goal. He has since developed a slightly more complicated version called *Star with better balance between edge and center moves, writing "*Star is what those other games wanted to be."
Alexander Randolph was a Bohemian-American designer of board games and writer. Randolph's game creations include TwixT, Breakthru, Hol's der Geier, Inkognito, Raj, Ricochet Robot, and Enchanted Forest.
A social game or, less commonly, parlour game, may refer to tabletop, other face-to-face indoor or outdoor games, or video games that allow or require social interaction between players as opposed to games played in solitude, games played at tournaments or competitions or games played for money.
The 3M bookshelf game series is a set of strategy and economic games published in the 1960s and early 1970s by 3M Corporation. The games were packaged in leatherette-look large hardback book size boxes in contrast to the prevalent wide, flat game boxes. The series grew to encompass over three dozen games. Most were multi-player board games or card games; a few were trivia games or two-handed board games. Acquire and TwixT were among the best-selling titles. The series later became part of the Avalon Hill Bookcase games. Very few of these games are still being published.
Breakthru is an abstract strategy board game for two players, designed by Alex Randolph and commercially released by 3M Company in 1965, as part of the 3M bookshelf game series. It later became part of the Avalon Hill bookcase games. It is no longer in production. The game has been compared to Fox and Hounds, although it shows more characteristics of the Tafl games of the Middle Ages, such as Hnefatafl.
Oh-Wah-Ree is a mancala variant designed by Alex Randolph and published in 1962 by 3M as part of their bookshelf game line. The name "Oh-Wah-Ree" is taken from Oware, a typical West African game for which it is based on. It is played on a board with a ring of pits and stone playing pieces, distinguished from other mancala variants by the use of a second ring of holes to mark ownership of pits by the players, allowing play between more than two players at a time. The object is to capture the opponents' stones.
A connection game is a type of abstract strategy game in which players attempt to complete a specific type of connection with their pieces. This could involve forming a path between two or more endpoints, completing a closed loop, or connecting all of one's pieces so they are adjacent to each other. Connection games typically have simple rules, but complex strategies. They have minimal components and may be played as board games, computer games, or even paper-and-pencil games.
