Abstract Games Magazine

Trying to get away from obsessive little mobile apps before bed, I found the very rewarding Abstract Games Magazine with over 20 free back issues on their archive page.  What a delight to read about all the unusual games, both old and new.  They take the time to write 8 or 10 pages about strategy tips for Hex, Conway's Phutball, chess variants, a range of mancala games, and those complex Shogi games I can never figure out.  They had a history of 3-D chess that ran to at least 5 parts.  Almost every issue adds a few new games I had not heard about yet, from Gobblet to Hive to Camelot, Takat, Ploy, Dameo, Croda and more. There is a strategy guide to Trax, which was a precursor to Tsuro (one of our favorites) that I didn't know existed.  And I now have the idea of Alice Chess in my head, knowing I will never find a human willing to try it out.

I would recommend looking at their latest issue and going to the last page or two where they have the index of all the games they have covered up to that point.  It's impressive.  There are also lengthy interviews with some of the game creators.  And lots of full example games with all kinds of creative move notations -- right up my alley.

After reading about Hive in issue 10, and watching some YouTube tutorials, that's next on my list of games to get physical copies of. 

Each night, these articles fill my head with more things to think about, more games to try, more potential articles to write myself.  A big thanks to the editor and the whole team at Abstract Games Magazine for keeping this type of gaming in our thoughts.  Cheers.