SMALL GAMES · GOOD IDEAS
Game guides
Check the rules, explore an idea, and try another game. Read a guide before playing or during a short break.
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Board games
Rules and play
Board games · Rules and play
Shogi piece moves: direction, distance and blocked paths
Learn the eight shogi pieces by direction and distance. Compare gold and silver moves, follow a rook capture step by step, and distinguish movement from legal play.
Board games · Rules and play
Go liberties and captures: count the whole group
Follow a one-stone capture, recognise atari and count shared liberties. Learn why capture is checked before suicide and how the site’s positional superko differs from a basic ko explanation.
Board games · Rules and play
Checkmate and stalemate: why an immobile king may draw
Compare two three-piece positions with a black king on a8, check every escape, and learn how checkmate differs from a stalemate draw.
Board games · Rules and play
Shogi promotion and drops: timing, double pawns and pawn-drop mate
Understand the promotion zone, forced promotion, captured pieces and legal drops. Follow a pawn promotion and distinguish a checking pawn drop from pawn-drop mate.
Board games · Rules and play
When Go ends: area scoring and the site’s confirmation steps
Understand consecutive passes, dead-group review and mutual agreement. Calculate a complete 9×9 example with komi and distinguish this site’s area scoring from Japanese territory scoring.
Board games · Rules and play
Chess special moves: castling, en passant and promotion
Check why castling is unavailable, when an en passant opportunity expires, and how to choose a promotion piece using concrete positions and site controls.
Ideas and tactics
Board games · Ideas and tactics
Reversi corners and options: inspect the reply before counting flips
See why a corner cannot be flipped and how a diagonal neighbour can give it away. Follow a two-move example and compare the opponent’s options, not just immediate disc gains.
Board games · Ideas and tactics
Save a shogi record and review one move at a time
Learn the difference between a device save, read-only move review and KIF or KIFU export, then use a move and its reply to guide your next game.
Puzzles
Rules and play
Puzzles · Rules and play
Sudoku is about distinct symbols: why relabelling preserves logic
A one-to-one change of digit labels preserves Sudoku constraints. Use that fact to see why repetition, rather than arithmetic, drives deductions.
Ideas and tactics
Puzzles · Ideas and tactics
Reading Minesweeper numbers: neighbours and subtraction
Count diagonal neighbours, separate facts from flags, and compare overlapping clues to find a safe square.
Puzzles · Ideas and tactics
Sudoku candidates: one digit or one possible place
Build candidates from rows, columns and boxes, then distinguish a single remaining digit from a single possible location.
Puzzles · Ideas and tactics
Flags and chording: when an open number can reveal neighbours
Learn what flags record and why matching a clue’s flag count is necessary but does not make a chord safe.
Puzzles · Ideas and tactics
Nonogram lines: overlap, gaps and crossing clues
Compare legal placements in one line, mark only shared conclusions, and carry them across to the crossing columns.
Card games
Rules and play
Card games · Rules and play
Klondike rules: draw one, draw three and recycle the stock
Learn tableau and foundation rules, which draw-three card is playable, and how stock recycling changes access.
Card games · Rules and play
Spider suits and sequences: placement versus group movement
Learn one-, two- and four-suit Spider, same-suit group movement, and the empty-column restriction on stock deals.
Ideas and tactics
Card games · Ideas and tactics
Klondike empty columns: three checks before moving a King
Use empty columns by checking King access, Queen colors and the face-down cards a move will uncover.
Card games · Ideas and tactics
FreeCell group moves: count free cells and usable empty columns
Calculate group capacity with the empty destination excluded, then follow a six-card transfer example.
Compare and choose
Card games · Compare and choose
Klondike, FreeCell and Spider: why similar cards need different plans
Compare information, group moves, empty columns, stock access and completion across three solitaire games.
Action & reaction
Ideas and tactics
Action & reaction · Ideas and tactics
Snake controls and planning space after a turn
Use direction buttons, arrow keys or swipes, understand why reversal is blocked, and plan what happens after taking an apple in an 8×8 example.
Action & reaction · Ideas and tactics
Brick bounce aiming: contact position and wall rebounds
Compare centre and edge contacts, use the control strip or keys, and follow wall rebounds, multiple balls, combo and remaining lives.