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The first annual LTU MAA Hackenbush Tournament

Come join us and play Hackenbush for fun and (possible) profit. We will explain and demonstrate the game, then let players compete against each other for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Stay afterwards and discuss the interesting theory and strategy behind the game (trust me, books have been written on this stuff!)

How to play

Hackenbush is a fun 2-player mathematical game where players take turns cutting (hacking) branches off of a tree. The player who makes the last valid move wins the game.

The game field consists of a network of blue and red branches connected to the ground. The game starts off with one of the players (randomly selected) picking whether they would like to go first or second, or whether they would like to be red or blue. The other player then gets to pick the remaining option (red/blue or first/second). The two players then alternate turns, cutting off their respective branches. Any part of the graph that becomes unsupported (i.e. not connected to any branches or the ground) during play is removed from the graph. The game continues until a player removes the final branch, winning the game.

An example

For example, consider this graph:
One of the players is chosen at random, let's assume she picks red. The other player is then assigned the blue branches, and gets to decide whether he would like to go first or second. Let's assume he would like to go second. So, the red player moves first, and can pick any red branch to remove from the graph. For example:
Now it's blue's turn:
Now it's red's turn again, watch what happens to the top blue piece:
It became unsupported by any other branches and disappeared! Now let's watch how the rest of the game might be played out:



Red cut the last place, and wins the game. Note that the game could have gone differently depending on which pieces were cut and when.

This is just a simple example, but you should be able to see the general idea. If you don't quite understand everything, fear not! more will be explained at the tournament. The game is very fun, but requires some strategy, so feel free to study the game a bit. Good luck!

Resources


Page last edited: Feb 21 2006
Contact: Steven Kryskalla <skryskalla@gmail.com>