Slither forum: is a draw possible in slither?

Since no diagonal connections are allowed, can a position be reached where a player can not make a move? If so, does that player have to resign? is it a draw?

Corey Clark says if a player has no legal move, he or she passes. No one but Richard knows if LG's Slither implements passing. Anyone want to try the experiment?

While there is as yet no proof that at least one of the players has a move in any not-yet-won legal board position, some people, I among them, have tried and failed to find such a position. See the No legal move discussion on boardgamegeek.com.

thanks MG, looks like a puzzle that could be fun to play with! I would hope LG would have the pass option in the case of no legal move...hopefully Richard will comment on this

In LG you always have the legal move to resign. ;-)

Yeah. Are there any winning Slither positions for a passing player?

yes the passing was something I missed for a long time and unfortunately despite explicitly telling Richard about the rules modification in a geekmail, by the time he got around to programming it he must've forgotten about it but it's no big deal. That rules modification was really just a matter of creative integrity I just find draw-free finite games to be the most elegant in general. The draw positions are so contrived that I can say with absolute confidence they will never come up in actual play and if such a position did arise the game would be effectively decided, so the loser could just resign. Trust me the only person who has to worry about this is me but even I'm not losing any sleep over it.

> "The draw positions are so contrived ..."

Draw positions? What draw positions? Where the board is filled but neither pair of sides is connected??

Or where neither player has a legal move?

Slither. Best. Game. Ever. :-)

Marley sorry to burst your bubble cause I know how bad you want to bust Slither ;) but with the passing rule Slither is 100% draw free. I was just talking about the position where one player cannot make a move on their turn where the winner is decided anyway.