Diamond Collector
Stage: 3 Challenge Level: 
Collect as many diamonds as you can by drawing three straight lines.
Pentanim,a Game for Two Players
Stage: 3 and 4 Challenge Level:
A game for 2 players with similaritlies to NIM. Place one counter on each spot on the games board. Players take it is turns to remove 1 or 2 adjacent counters. The winner picks up the last counter.
Property Chart
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
A game in which players take it in turns to try to draw quadrilaterals (or triangles) with particular properties. Is it possible to fill the game grid?
Quadrilaterals Game
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
A game for 2 or more people, based on the traditional card game Rummy. Players aim to make two `tricks', where each trick has to consist of a picture of a shape, a name that describes that shape, and. . . .
Shapely Pairs
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
A game in which players take it in turns to turn up two cards. If they can draw a triangle which satisfies both properties they win the pair of cards. And a few challenging questions to follow...
Fifteen
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Fifteen is a game for two players that you can play anywhere, anytime. Players take it in turns to select a number from 1 to 9. The aim is to choose 3 numbers that total 15.
Square It
Stage: 1, 2, 3 and 4 Challenge Level:
Players take it in turns to choose a dot on the grid. The winner is the first to have four dots that can be joined to form a square.
First Connect Three
Stage: 2 and 3 Challenge Level:
The idea of this game is to add or subtract the two numbers on the dice and cover the result on the grid, trying to get a line of three. Are there some numbers that are good to aim for?
Online - a Game for Two Players
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
A game for 2 players that can be played online. Players take it in turns to select a word from the 9 words given. The aim is to select all the occurrences of the same letter.
GOT IT
Stage: 2 and 3 Challenge Level:
A game for two people, or play online. Given a target number,say 23, and a range of numbers to choose from, say 1-4, players take it in turns to add to the running total to hit their target.
Diagonal Sums Sudoku
Stage: 2, 3 and 4 Challenge Level:
Solve this Sudoku puzzle whose clues are in the form of sums of the numbers which should appear in diagonal opposite cells.
Winning Lines
Stage: 2, 3 and 4 Challenge Level:
An article for teachers and pupils that encourages you to look at the mathematical properties of similar games.
Product Sudoku
Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:
The clues for this Sudoku are the product of the numbers in adjacent squares.
Product Sudoku 2
Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:
Given the products of diagonally opposite cells - can you complete this Sudoku?
Intersection Sums Sudoku
Stage: 2, 3 and 4 Challenge Level:
A Sudoku with clues given as sums of entries.
Multiplication Tables - Matching Cards
Stage: 1, 2, 3 and 4 Challenge Level:
Interactive game. Set your own level of challenge, practise your table skills and beat your previous best score.
The Remainders Game
Stage: 2 and 3 Challenge Level:
A game that tests your understanding of remainders.
Factors and Multiples Game
Stage: 2 and 3 Challenge Level:
A game in which players take it in turns to choose a number. Can you block your opponent?
Matching Fractions Decimals Percentages
Stage: 2 and 3 Challenge Level:
An activity based on the game 'Pelmanism'. Set your own level of challenge and beat your own previous best score.
Learning Mathematics Through Games Series: 4. from Strategy Games
Stage: 1, 2 and 3
Basic strategy games are particularly suitable as starting points for investigations. Players instinctively try to discover a winning strategy, and usually the best way to do this is to analyse. . . .
Transformation Game
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Why not challenge a friend to play this transformation game?
Got It! Article
Stage: 2 and 3
This article gives you a few ideas for understanding the Got It! game and how you might find a winning strategy.
Diamond Mine
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Practise your diamond mining skills and your x,y coordination in this homage to Pacman.
Games Related to Nim
Stage: 1, 2, 3 and 4
This article for teachers describes several games, found on the site, all of which have a related structure that can be used to develop the skills of strategic planning.
Ratio Pairs 3
Stage: 3 and 4 Challenge Level:
Match pairs of cards so that they have equivalent ratios.
Nice and Nasty
Stage: 2 and 3 Challenge Level:
There are nasty versions of this dice game but we'll start with the nice ones...
Game of PIG - Sixes
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
Players all start with zero points, they take turns to throw the dice as many times as they like, adding the total at each throw to their cumulative total.
Talking about Maths - 1
Stage: 2, 3, 4 and 5
The first of two articles for teachers explaining how to include talk in maths presentations.
Sliding Puzzle
Stage: 1, 2, 3 and 4 Challenge Level:
The aim of the game is to slide the green square from the top right hand corner to the bottom left hand corner in the least number of moves.
Hockey
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
After some matches were played, most of the information in the table containing the results of the games was accidentally deleted. What was the score in each match played?
Squayles
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
A game for 2 players. Given an arrangement of matchsticks, players take it is turns to remove a matchstick, along with all of the matchsticks that touch it.
Using Games in the Classroom
Stage: 2, 3 and 4
Gillian Hatch analyses what goes on when mathematical games are used as a pedagogic device.
Tangram Pictures
Stage: 1, 2 and 3 Challenge Level:
Use the tangram pieces to make our pictures, or to design some of your own!
Got a Strategy for Last Biscuit?
Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:
Can you beat the computer in the challenging strategy game?
Slippery Snail
Stage: 3 and 4 Challenge Level:
A game for 2 people. Take turns to move the counters 1, 2 or 3 spaces. The player to remove the last counter off the board wins.
Yih or Luk Tsut K'i or Three Men's Morris
Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:
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. . . .
Instant Insanity
Stage: 1 and 3 Challenge Level:
We have a set of four very innocent-looking cubes - each face coloured red, blue, green or white - and they have to be arranged in a row so that all of the four colours appear on each of the. . . .
Diagonal Dodge
Stage: 2 and 3 Challenge Level:
A game for 2 players. Can be played online. One player has 1 red counter, the other has 4 blue. The red counter needs to reach the other side, and the blue needs to trap the red.
Nim-interactive
Stage: 3 and 4 Challenge Level:
Start with any number of counters in any number of piles. 2 players take it in turns to remove any number of counters from a single pile. The winner is the player to take the last counter.
Twin Corresponding Sudoku III
Stage: 3 and 4 Challenge Level:
Two sudokus in one. Challenge yourself to make the necessary connections.
Twin Corresponding Sudoku
Stage: 3, 4 and 5 Challenge Level:
This sudoku requires you to have "double vision" - two Sudoku's for the price of one
Patience
Stage: 3 Challenge Level:
A simple game of patience which often comes out. Can you explain why?
Twin Corresponding Sudokus II
Stage: 3 and 4 Challenge Level:
Two sudokus in one. Challenge yourself to make the necessary connections.
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NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project, which also includes the Plus and Motivate sites.
email: nrich@damtp.cam.ac.uk
