The game uses a 3x3 square board. 2 players take turns to play, either placing a red on an empty square, or changing a red to orange, or orange to green. The player who forms 3 of 1 colour in a line wins.
This game for two players comes from Ghana. However, stones that were marked for this game in the third century AD have been found near Hadrian's Wall in Northern England.
Some puzzles requiring no knowledge of knot theory, just a careful inspection of the patterns. A glimpse of the classification of knots and a little about prime knots, crossing numbers and knot arithmetic.
In answer to what numbers we should be aiming for, Tom and Chester from Hotwells Primary School said:
It is better to get the numbers in the middle of the board because then you have more choice and it's easer to get three in a row.
I wrote a table of all the pairs the dice can throw, and then the numbers you can add and subtract to get
So it is easiest to make $-1$ and $1$.
It is hardest to make $12$ as there is only one way to make it.
Well done Jeremy, we like your logical and well planned answer.
Tables are a great way to write down all your information in a game, so you can discover new things.
Try playing it against the computer and have a think yourself. We'd love to hear from you.