Loophole 2D

Loophole 2D is a two-player game played on a hexagonal patterned rhombus with two inside windows and an initial placement of stones as described below. Loophole 2D is a two dimensional adaptation of Loophole, a three dimensional game. Each player takes possession of an entire set of stones of one color, black or white. Draws cannot occur in Loophole 2D. Nodes and loops Two 3×3 rhombic areas are removed from the board to form two windows. The area outside the board is a third window. Each of the two inside windows is tightly surrounded by two three-stone rows of black stones and two slanted three-stone columns of white stones. The outside window is similarly separated from the board by two lines of stones of each color lying just outside the board. For the outside window, these lines of stones are as long as the sides of the board. A loop is a closed circuit of interconnected stones of the same color touching two opposite sides of a window. For the purpose of identifying a loop, two like-colored stones adjacent to the same window are considered connected, so that a loop can comprise several chains of stones connected by windows. A window is a node of a loop if the loop touches two opposite sides of the window. Play Players take turns adding their stones to unoccupied cells on the board, one stone per turn. Black makes the first placement of the game. Each player will always have a placement available on his turn and must make one. To win you must form at least two loops. Each of the two loops must be a single node loop, a double node loop, or a triple node loop. The two loops must be topologically distinct. Two loops of the same type (e.g. two double node loops) that use the same set of nodes are not topologically distinct.