Slither

About this board game

Slither is a two-player square-board connection game that takes about 40 minutes to play. Starting with Black, players place and move stones while pursuing different routes to victory: White seeks to connect the board’s right and left sides, while Black aims to connect its top and bottom edges.

The game uses a square board of any size and a supply of stones in two colors. On each turn, a player may place a stone on any empty cell, or place a stone and move another stone already on the board by a chess king’s move.

Movement and placement are governed by an important connection rule. At the end of a turn, no two stones of the same color may be diagonally adjacent unless they are orthogonally connected by a common stone of that color. This restriction makes every move a balance between advancing a connection and preserving legal positions.

• Players: 2
• Play time: about 40 minutes
• Release year: 2010
• Draws: impossible

Passing is normally prohibited. Only if a player has no legal move may that player pass, an event described as very unlikely. The pie rule is available, although its effectiveness in classic Slither is questionable because a stone can be translated to the middle of the board without losing tempo.

Experienced players can try Advanced Slither, a late-2018 variant. Its sole additional rule allows a stone to move only when it belongs to a contiguous orthogonal group containing stones of both colors. This makes the game more static and strategically and tactically richer, while also making the pie rule more effective and disrupting opening templates.