ELEGO (Elementary GO) is a very simple game. It is played on a rectangular grid, with players taking turns putting their marks (X's and O's) into the grid cells. There are only two rules:
1. You can only go next to a cell already containing your mark.
2. You lose if you cannot make a move.
I suggest playing ELEGO on an 8x8 grid, with the first 3 marks positioned at random.
To place marks at random, take two 6-sided dice, and roll them three times. If you roll A on one die and B on the other, place an X into the square at (A+1, B+1), and place an O at (B+1, A+1).
E.g. if you roll 5 and 3, put an X at (6, 4) and an O at (4, 6). Reroll every time you got a double.
This setup ensures that your positions are symmetrical and no player has an unfair advantage.
I invented ELEGO because I needed a simple yet interesting game that could be played by a computer. My implementation of a computer player is under 500 lines of Java code, yet it plays on a very reasonable level. Try it yourself!
Andrei Burago