Online play
This is the beginning of a new series on the opportunities for online play of abstract games. We start with a review of the much respected Little Golem. ~ Ed.
|
by David Ploog
|
Introduction
Little Golem is available for online turn-based play of around 30 games. Their games include various abstracts, both traditional and modern.
Background
LittleGolem is one of the powerhouses in the world of online abstract playing. Richard Malaschitz started it in March 2002 as a Go server. The name "Little Golem" is both a local reference from the "Golem of Prague" tale and a nod to Go. Eventually LG branched out but for a long time, Go was the most popular game on the server. Richard created Little Golem while working at SUN Microsystems—and his colleague made BrainKing. These days, Little Golem is known for having very strong players of various modern classics in our genre: Hex, Twixt, Lines of Action, and Amazons, among others.
How to play
All games on Little Golem are played in a turn-based format. Time for making a move is 36 hours and there is a 10 day grace period. In order to take part, registration by email is required. This demanded persistence on my part—I failed with two university accounts whose spam filters probably killed LG's replies. I finally got through using Zoho and Richard remarks that Gmail and Mailgun are known to work. Playing is free, but players can support Richard with a donation (which will increase the yearly grace period).
The games
Given its size and age, Little Golem has remarkably few games. I consider this to be a great feature! There are hundreds of new abstracts coming out each year, and while there are sites adding new titles all the time, I commend Richard for taking a slim and strict approach.
Apart from the classics and some unusual variants (like small Shogi's), Little Golem features these well-known abstract games: Hex, Twixt, Lines of Action, Havannah, Dameo, Amazons, Slither, Breakthrough, Lyngk, Tzaar, Dvonn, Connect6, Catchup, Morelli, and ConHex. Among its altogether 30 titles—with variants, in total 125—mostly are abstracts, but it also includes a few dice or word games. The latter include Qyps, Oski, Golem Word Game, Soccer, and EinStein würfelt nicht!. Oski and Qyps were created by Richard together with his family.
What makes Little Golem special
1. As mentioned before, it's a particularly slim and dedicated playing site with focus on high-level play. If you are a player of one of the games Little Golem offers, it is quite likely that LG is the place for serious play.
2. All games are saved and permanently accessible. This makes LG an excellent resource for studying: you can replay games of good players (start with final rounds of championships) and doing so does not require login or an account.
3. Little Golem has several kinds of tournaments. There is league play where you compete in round-robin mode with players of similar level—winning a championship is an achievement! Reaching a rating of 2000 is also an achievement, by the way. A championship can take a while from start to finish (up to a year) and yet there have been several dozens championships for classics like Breakthrough, LOA, and Reversi.
What to expect in the future
A dedicated mobile interface is in beta. While new games will be added to the roster, this is an intentionally slow process. Tumbleweed is slated to be the next addition. Richard's final comment is, "I have a lot of plans for the future." ◾️
Little Golem is available for online turn-based play of around 30 games. Their games include various abstracts, both traditional and modern.
Background
LittleGolem is one of the powerhouses in the world of online abstract playing. Richard Malaschitz started it in March 2002 as a Go server. The name "Little Golem" is both a local reference from the "Golem of Prague" tale and a nod to Go. Eventually LG branched out but for a long time, Go was the most popular game on the server. Richard created Little Golem while working at SUN Microsystems—and his colleague made BrainKing. These days, Little Golem is known for having very strong players of various modern classics in our genre: Hex, Twixt, Lines of Action, and Amazons, among others.
How to play
All games on Little Golem are played in a turn-based format. Time for making a move is 36 hours and there is a 10 day grace period. In order to take part, registration by email is required. This demanded persistence on my part—I failed with two university accounts whose spam filters probably killed LG's replies. I finally got through using Zoho and Richard remarks that Gmail and Mailgun are known to work. Playing is free, but players can support Richard with a donation (which will increase the yearly grace period).
The games
Given its size and age, Little Golem has remarkably few games. I consider this to be a great feature! There are hundreds of new abstracts coming out each year, and while there are sites adding new titles all the time, I commend Richard for taking a slim and strict approach.
Apart from the classics and some unusual variants (like small Shogi's), Little Golem features these well-known abstract games: Hex, Twixt, Lines of Action, Havannah, Dameo, Amazons, Slither, Breakthrough, Lyngk, Tzaar, Dvonn, Connect6, Catchup, Morelli, and ConHex. Among its altogether 30 titles—with variants, in total 125—mostly are abstracts, but it also includes a few dice or word games. The latter include Qyps, Oski, Golem Word Game, Soccer, and EinStein würfelt nicht!. Oski and Qyps were created by Richard together with his family.
What makes Little Golem special
1. As mentioned before, it's a particularly slim and dedicated playing site with focus on high-level play. If you are a player of one of the games Little Golem offers, it is quite likely that LG is the place for serious play.
2. All games are saved and permanently accessible. This makes LG an excellent resource for studying: you can replay games of good players (start with final rounds of championships) and doing so does not require login or an account.
3. Little Golem has several kinds of tournaments. There is league play where you compete in round-robin mode with players of similar level—winning a championship is an achievement! Reaching a rating of 2000 is also an achievement, by the way. A championship can take a while from start to finish (up to a year) and yet there have been several dozens championships for classics like Breakthrough, LOA, and Reversi.
What to expect in the future
A dedicated mobile interface is in beta. While new games will be added to the roster, this is an intentionally slow process. Tumbleweed is slated to be the next addition. Richard's final comment is, "I have a lot of plans for the future." ◾️