The Dots & Boxes Endgames book series by Francis Gurtowski
Discover the startling aesthetics
of the selectively-stroked patterns that emerge
as book by book in this series
the densities of the underlying infrastructure
increase in leaps and bounds.
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These revolutionary, one-time pads consist of the most cogent dots-and-boxes, ready-made configurations.
Each bound volume in the sequence in turn contains more and more complicated - and more and more carefully calculated by way of my number-crunching algorithm - partially stroked dots-and-boxes setups. Each setup has been set up for you to complete wherein each of the constituent interstices has been teed up but not quite boxed in. It took a lot of code for me to accomplish this amazing hack. But I was determined to create this time-saving literary staircase. I have grown to loathe mindlessly hand-plotting myriad dots in the same old pattern for what seemed like the millionth time. I furthermore found myself abhorring the tedious stroke-by-stroke buildup to the commencement of the gist of the dots-and-boxes game. The more rows and columns a dots-and-boxes grid has the better, I suppose. But the nasty corollary to that hasty assertion is that grid growth becomes more and more of a impediment when laying out the vertices dot-by-dot by hand. |
While there are online sources of preprinted/print-yourself dots-and-boxes templates, those unimaginative bare-bones rote dot patterns pale in comparison to the value-added lattices in this book series which consists of instant dots-and-boxes situations analogous to Laszlo Polgar's classic book of chess endgame problems.
Chess, on the one hand, and dots-and-boxes, on the other, have comparable long-drawn-out opening sequences which only eventually climax in comparable "check states." Unfortunately, over time both over-studied prelims have calcified into timeworn call-and-response rituals akin to military cadences. Of course, "check" is the state in which a chess king is exposed to attack from which the premier chess piece must be protected or moved to safety. The dots-and-boxes sense of that phenomenon arises whenever the very next stroke wherever will tee up the next player to box in an interstice or even a chain of them. Discover the startling aesthetics of the selectively-stroked patterns that emerge as book by book in this series the densities of the underlying infrastructure increase in leaps and bounds. |
As gamers go, we aficionados of the "dots-and-boxes game" are remarkably flexible.
Unlike chess/checkers players or Scrabble players, who are invested in standard grid dimensions e.g. 8x8, 15x15. The precise number of rows of boxes forming the box-game grid does not matter to us. Although, the more the better. Nor the precise number of columns of boxes. Ditto. We only insist that the boxes be squares. During the preparation of this book series I have consequently so far limited myself to a certain ratio of rows to columns. The "golden ratio" in this case happens to be 7/5 or 1.4. 7x5, 14x10, 21x15, 28x20, 35x25, 42x30, 49x35, 56x40, 63x45, 70x50, 77x55, 84x60, 91x65, and 98x70. The respective edge lengths range from 1.5 to 0.1071143 inches. Prepare to sharpen your pencils! |
