The Genius, by A Skymin’s Mind #8

Same Number Hunt

Used as Final Match of Season 3, Round 2, and Death Match of Season 4, Round 4.

Rules

Score points by correctly forming mathematical expressions resulting on the given number. Win by scoring 10 points first.

There is a grid of 16 letters. Behind each letter, there are the twelve numbers 1-12 and the four arithmetic operations +, -, ×, ÷. At the beginning, the back sides are shown for 5 seconds to the players, after which they are hidden again, only showing the letters. Then the game begins, playing round after round, until someone scores 10 points to be the winner.

In each round, a number is revealed; this number is a natural number that can be formed using the given numbers and operations. (For example, 23 can appear as 11+12 can be formed from the grid, but 29 will not appear.) A player that thinks they can form an equation should press the buzzer and recite three letters, corresponding to the numbers and operations. For example, if 11 is behind the letter C, + is behind the letter P, and 12 is behind the letter K, on a target number of 23 a player can recite CPK (or KPC) to score.

The expression must be in the form “number, operator, number”, and may not repeat any letter (thus 7+7 is not permitted). Upon pressing the buzzer, the player has 5 seconds to recite the expression, otherwise it’s considered as an incorrect answer. After reciting the letters, they are revealed; if the answer is incorrect, the turn is passed to the opposing player, who gets no time limit to form the equation. The turns are passed back and forth until a correct answer is made, which scores 1 point and begins the next round. The first player to score 10 points win the game.

As this is a Final Game, there are three items available (in addition to Item Copy and Item Disabler):

• Priority: Allows the user to answer the next round first without pressing the buzzer first. (This can only be activated at the start of a round, before the target number is revealed.)
• Double Chance: Allows the user to construct a 5-letter expression (number, operation, number, operation, number), which if correct, gives 2 points.
• Peek: Allows the user to check the back of one letter before answering.

In its reincarnation (season 4), there are no items. Additionally, subtraction is replaced by a special expression , which takes the square roots of both operands and adds the results together. If one manages to complete an expression with this correctly, they score 2 points.

The Genius, by A Skymin’s Mind #7

Monorail

Used as Death Match of Season 3, Round 10 and Season 4, Round 6. (Discussion of S4E6 in particular will come later.)

Rules

The objective is to be the one that completes a train track, or to be the one that declares it’s impossible (correctly).

There are 18 square tiles used in the game. Two of them show straight tracks, the station tiles, which are already placed on the grid; the remaining 16 tiles can be made to show a straight track or a bend track, which are to be placed. Players place tiles so that sides match (a track leading to a non-track side is not permitted; think of tile-based games (such as Dominoes or Carcassonne, where sides of tiles must match). A player may place one to three tiles at once, but all of them must be played in a straight line contiguously (think of Scrabble, where you cannot place your tiles separated, only that it’s even more strict; the tiles must be contiguous, not separated by already existing tiles). However, the track itself doesn’t need to be connected; as long as the tiles placed are connected, it’s fine.

The person who places the last tile, completing the track using all tiles already placed, wins. However, a player can also declare that it’s impossible to complete the track, in which the opponent must either complete it (for a win to the non-challenger) or resign (for a win to the challenger).

Also see this video from the Facebook page, which is unfortunately in Korean, but gives illustrations.

The Genius, by A Skymin’s Mind #6

Open, Pass

Used as Main Match of Season 1, Round 7.

Rules

Each player receives a deck of 20 cards, numbered 0-9 along with mathematical operations +, -, ×, ÷. They may spend garnets to buy additional cards from three decks: black, red, and blue, worth 1, 2, 3 garnets each, and have increasingly better cards. (For example, the black number cards are two copies of 0-3 and one copy of 7-8, while the blue number cards are three copies of 7-9 and one copy of 10. Also, black operation cards have three of subtraction and division, with two of the others, while blue operation cards invert this, having three additions and multiplications and two of the others.)

After buying cards and exchanging with other players if necessary, each player constructs a 20-card deck, which will be shuffled by the dealer. A player may ask for a reshuffle for at most three times. After a player is satisfied with their lay, the dealer begins filling a 10-slot expression with the deck. Each time, a card is placed face down at the rightmost empty space. The player may choose either to open the card, thus opening it and fixing its position, or pass the card, throwing it away without seeing its value. After ten opens (and thus at most ten passes), the expression is created. Only the leftmost number is kept across a stretch of numbers, and similarly with operations. After that, if the rightmost card in the expression is an operation, it is discarded, and if the leftmost card is an operation, a zero is appended to the left of the expression. The result is then evaluated and becomes the score. For example, -, 8, 5, 7, +, ×, 3, ÷, 5, + is converted into 0 – 8 + 3 ÷ 5 = -7.4. The winner is the person with the highest score.

The Genius, by A Skymin’s Mind #5

Truth Detector

Used as Season 2 Final Game, Round 2.

Rules

There are two players. Each player prepares a 4-digit password and tries to hide it from his opponent. Then each player, in turn, can start asking questions to each other, which must be answered untruthfully. In other words, if you ask “How many times the digit 0 appears in your code?” and you receive a reply of 0, it means there exists the digit 0 in the code (because the reply is wrong). However, this reply cannot be an impossible reply (such as an answer of “5” for the above, considering that there are only 4 digits) or an unrelated/evasive reply (such as “I don’t know”). Additionally, questions must only be about the password. When giving a truth or any of the forbidden replies above, the penalty is revealing a digit not in the password.

When one thinks he knows the password of the other, he may use the turn to answer instead, guessing the password. If this is correct, he is the winner; if this is incorrect, the turn passes to the opponent.

As this is a Final Game, there are three items given:

• Starting Player: The person with this item may start asking question first.
• Truth Penalty Exemption: If a person accidentally answers the truth, using this item he may avoid the penalty once.
• Double Turn: This item may be used to give an additional turn, be it for asking or guessing.

The Genius, by A Skymin’s Mind #4

Scamming Horse Race

Used as Main Match of Season 1, Round 5, and inspires Main Match of Season 1, Round 10, for a later issue.

Rules

There is a horse race involving eight horses, traveling across 20 spaces. There are 12 rounds; in each round, each horse advances by a predetermined amount between 0 and 3 spaces, inclusive. (The result of the race is already determined.) Players should bet on which horses will finish first or second; there are no distinction on whether they bet on the horse placing first or the horse placing second.

Players have 20 chips at the beginning, and they may bet at most three chips after each round. They may not bet on horses in no-bet zone, the last four spaces of the race. Unused chips are discarded, and correct bets receive payoffs depending on their odds; the less chips bet on a horse, the larger the payoff per chip will be.

Each player has received a hint at the beginning of the game, and they may also look at any of three additional hints by paying three garnets for each hint.

Chips not wagered on any horse are lost at the end. The player with the biggest payout wins, and the smallest payout loses.

The Genius, by A Skymin’s Mind #3

Tactical Yutnori

Used as Death Match of Season 1, Rounds 3, 4, 10, and Season 4, Round 2.

Rules

Basic yutnori rules apply, as follows. Wikipedia is also pretty complete.

The game uses a special yutnori board. Players cast yut sticks which can be “up” (plain) or “down” (marked). There are thus four sticks cast. The number of up sticks is the player’s score: one up stick is 도 (do), scoring one space; two up sticks is 개 (gae), scoring two spaces; three up sticks is 걸 (geol), scoring three spaces; four up sticks is 윷 (yut), scoring four spaces; and no up sticks is 모 (mo), scoring five spaces, unlike the others. In addition, yut and mo also allow the player to cast again, thus possibly accumulating several yuts and mos before a different cast is thrown.

Each player has two pieces on the board. After a move, the player can move any of their pieces for the score cast. In case of yuts and mos, they can choose where each cast goes to, but a cast can be only used for one piece. (For example, with a yut and a gae, one can use them to advance a piece six spaces (4+2) or a piece four spaces and another two spaces, but not split them into three and three.)

Normally, pieces travel along the outer edge of the board. However, when a piece lands on a corner or the center of the board, it has the option of following a different, shorter route. Note that the piece must land on the corner or the center to allow the alternative route; simply passing by doesn’t count.

When a piece lands on another of its own, the two may decide to merge and continue together. When a piece lands on an opponent’s, the opponent piece is returned back to home and the player gets another cast. (It seems that if one gets a yut or a mo in this new cast, it doesn’t give another cast.) A player wins if they get both pieces back to the home after circling the board.

That concludes yutnori rules. However, as this is a tactical yutnori, additional rules are in place.

The two Death Match players each chooses a partner. The partners also play, but they cannot win. Each player holds two sticks, one is “up” on both sides and one is “down” on both sides, and each throws one stick of their choice. (Teammates may discuss, of course.)

In addition, there is a variant called “back do”. If one gets a do, instead of advancing by one space, a piece is retracted by one space. (If one doesn’t have any piece on the board, the turn is skipped.) Note that this allows a piece to retract back to home and beyond by back dos, and it’s still counted as circling the board.

The Genius, by A Skymin’s Mind #2

See here for explanation of this series.

Winning Streak

Used as Death Match of Season 1, Rounds 1, 2, 5.

Rules

Two people, the Death Match players, are playing rock-paper-scissors against all other people in a randomized order. Plays can only result on a win or a loss; in case of a tie, the play is repeated. After each player has played against all other people, the longest streak of wins is scored; the one with longer streak wins. (As there has never been any tie, it’s not known what happens on a tie, but I guess the next longest streak is compared, and so on, replaying the game if the whole thing is a tie.)

The Genius, by A Skymin’s Mind #1

A Korean game show, which I watched online (subtitled of course, so go watch it too) from here. Basically all players play a game, called the Main Match. The loser, called the Elimination Candidate, can choose another person to join them in the Death Match, where one player is eliminated. (In case of multiple losers, the winners choose the one to be Elimination Candidate among them, and they later choose again the opponent as usual.) Rinse and repeat with different games.

So here I just want to talk about the games and my strategy for some of them. Note that this might be a light spoiler for everything, because I don’t list the games in order, so go watch all of them first before reading I suppose. This will be a series that will run for who knows how long.