Tak (game)

There are several common terms used to describe different aspects of Tak and its states of play. Many of the terms are unofficial and, while proposed or commonly accepted among Tak players, are not published in official rules or used in other official capacities. Much of this unofficial terminology has been taken from Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicle series.

Roads

Roads are lines of flat stones, or flat stones and capstones, that connect the north end of the board to the south end or the east end to the west end (or south/north, west/east). They do not have to be a straight line, but each stone must connect orthogonally (north, south, east, west) to the next stone in the road. There are no diagonal connections. The first player to complete a road wins the game.[1]

Flat stones

Often simply called "flats", these pieces lay flat on the board, may stack on top of each other, and count as part of a player's "road".[1]

Standing stones

Commonly called "walls", these are flat stones placed standing up on their narrowest side. Standing stones do not count as part of a player's road and are used to block another player's road. Standing stones can stack on top of flat stones and can be "flattened" or "crushed" by a "capstone." Flattening a standing stone turns it into a captive flat stone.[1]

Capstones

Capstones are the "power piece" of Tak. They have a unique appearance compared to the player's flat and standing stones, which are uniform in color and shape, can't be stacked on by an opponent, and count as a road for the owner. They also have the ability to "flatten" standing stones,[lower-alpha 1] turning them into flat stones, by moving onto the standing stone's square.[1]

Tak

"Tak" is called when the player is one move away from completing a road and winning the game, similar to the concept of "check" in chess . Calling Tak is optional, but is encouraged when playing against beginners or can be mandatory when agreed upon beforehand.[1]

Tinuë

Tinuë is an unofficial term for a winning position where the active player can complete a road on their next turn, regardless of what move the opponent makes. This is analogous to checkmate in chess. Tinuë is commonly a situation where a player can complete a road in several different ways with the opposing player only able to block one winning path.[2][3]

Flat Win

Unofficially known as a "Gaelet," When either player places their last piece on the board, or if every square on the board is filled, the game ends. If there is no completed road at this time, the player who has the most flat stones on the board wins. Flats that are prisoners underneath a stack do not count towards the score in a flat win.[1]

Stack

Stacks are groups of stones of one or more color stacked on top of each other. They can consist of all flat stones of one or both colors, flat stones of one or both colors with a standing stone of either color on top, or flat stones of one or both colors with a capstone of either color on top. Stacks can move like a single stone one space in any orthogonal direction, or they can be split up and moved several spaces across the board so long as one or more stones from the bottom are left on the square they're moving past. Stacks can only be made by moving stones on top of each other, not through placement.[1]

Deputy Stack

Informal term for when a capstone is stacked on top of a flat stone that is the same color as the capstone. There can be additional stones of any color underneath the "deputy stone" (the stone immediately underneath the capstone of the same color).[4]

Tak's design was based around the fictional game of "tak" described in Patrick Rothfuss' 2011 fantasy novel The Wise Man's Fear.[10] The protagonist of the novel, a young student and musician named Kvothe, travels to a foreign city and takes up residence in the mansion and court of a powerful noble. While there, a nobleman named Bredon introduces Kvothe to the game of Tak. The novel does not describe the specifics or rules of the game, but Tak plays an important part in the development of Kvothe as a character.

Throughout the novel, Tak is described as "simple in its rules, complex in its strategy" and is analogized to "a dance" where a "well-played game of tak reveals the moving of a mind." The goal of Tak is not necessarily to "win" but to play "a beautiful game".

Elements of this philosophical approach from the novel have been incorporated into the game play of Tak where players distinguish between different styles of play, one that focuses on playing a "beautiful game" and others more competitive in nature.

Concrete rules for Tak started to materialize in 2014 when James Ernest approached Patrick Rothfuss asking to design Tak for real and release it for play. Rothfuss was extremely reluctant at first saying "You can't make it. Nobody can make it, and if you made it you wouldn't be able to make it right, and if you did make it right, nobody would want to play it..."[11] Ernest persisted despite Rothfuss' misgivings, however, and developed the game with his blessing. When he and Rothfuss played it for the first time, Rothfuss was amazed.

It was just so good. It was beautiful. It was elegant and it was easy to learn and it was simple and it was really irritating because I hate being wrong...[11]

...it was amazing. I was stunned by the game. Stunned that anyone could make something like this. It’s more elegant than chess. It’s more enjoyable than Go.

I learned to play it in about five minutes and had a blast. More than a year later, the game is still unfurling for me like a flower, as I understand more and more about the play of it.

It is, in brief, a beautiful game...[12]

After this private unveiling of the game, James Ernest and Patrick Rothfuss, through Cheapass Games, launched a Kickstarter campaign on April 19, 2016 with a goal of US$50,000 in order to bring the game to publication. It ended on May 23, 2016 with 12,187 backers and US$1,351,142 pledged.[13]

Since then the US Tak Association has been founded by fans of the game to promote the game's recognition and its level of play, and to host tournaments in person and online.[14]

Tak has a small online community of players who play, discuss, and promote the game.

It is very common among the Tak community for players to custom create their own board and game pieces and share their creation with others online.[15][16]

In 2017, Mastering Tak Level I: A foundation for success (Volume 1) written by Bill Leighton, was the first published Tak strategy book.[23]

Many players discuss and propose ideas to Tak strategy through online communities, blogs, and publishing YouTube videos.[24]

Tak has a strong first player advantage on smaller boards. Steven Tavener's AIAI report program estimated a 60% win bias in favor of the first player on the 5x5 board size,[25] while Bill Leighton, author of Mastering Tak Level 1: A Foundation for Success estimates a bias of almost 66% on the 5x5 board. For the 6x6 board his estimate of first player advantage stands at 59% bias towards the first player.[26] Nohat Coder, a prominent Tak player, keeps an unofficial Tak rating system that gathers statistics from games played on Playtak.com. Removing data from players whose ratings are below 1600, NoHat coder has calculated a first player advantage bias of 65.6% for the 5x5 board and a 59.8% bias on the 6x6 board.[27] The bias decreases with larger board sizes, but players have also proposed rule variations to mitigate this factor and balance the game more.[9] For comparison the bias in chess is roughly 55% in favor of the first player.[28]

A notable example of an attempt to deal with first player bias in a tournament setting was the use of komi in the 2020 Covid-19 Cup. An automatic score of three points was added to Black's score in the event of a flat decision.[29][30]

• Abstract Strategy Game
• Connection Games
• Emergo
• Hex
• Mancala

• Playtak, a free, fanmade, browser-based Tak-playing site
• USTA – US Tak Association