Vino Square

Vino Square is a two-player abstract strategy game verified by AI, offering both strategic depth and engaging gameplay. A player wins by scoring more points than their opponent through forming more 2×2 or 3×3 patterns.

There are three types of pieces: Fino, Mino, and Vino. Each player has 5 Finos, 3 Minos, and 7 Vinos. A Fino consists of 5 squares arranged in a V-shape, a Mino is a single square, and a Vino consists of 3 squares arranged in a V-shape. The board is a 10×10 grid, with its central four squares marked by black lines.

At the start of the game, the first player must place a Fino in the center of the board, occupying three of the central four squares. Afterwards, players take turns, each following a sequence called "Fino-Mino-Vino-Fly". In the first three phases, a player must place a piece corresponding to that phase onto the board; a player may only skip to the next phase when they can no longer place a piece for the current phase. During the Fino and Mino phases, the newly placed piece cannot be adjacent to any of the player's existing pieces already on the board, including diagonally adjacent ones. During the Vino phase, a player can choose to move one of their Minos one step orthogonally (up, down, left, or right) before placing a Vino, or directly place a Vino without moving a Mino. When moving a Mino, if there are other pieces in that direction, it can leap over them to the nearest empty space. When a player can no longer place a Vino, they must pick up one of their Minos and place it on a square that was unreachable from its current position—this action is called a "fly". Once a player completes a fly, the other player may take continuous turns until they complete a fly as well. Regarding scoring rules, each individual square piece on the board is worth 1 point. In addition, when a player's pieces form a 2×2 pattern, they earn an extra 4 points; a 3×3 pattern earns an extra 9 points, and so on.

After a game ends, if either player requests it, the two players swap turn orders and play a second game. The player with the higher total score across both games wins.

—description from the designer