Pacru is an abstract board game invented by Mike Wellman. Pacru has much in common with Chess (piece movement with sharp tactical exchanges and long-term positional considerations) and Go (game) (strategic concepts such as area control must be considered). Pacru can be played by 2,3 or 4 people, each controlling a single colour. Commercial versions will usually come with the rules for two other games that can be played with the same equipment, Azacru and Shacru. Pacru, Azacru and Shacru have all been featured at the Mind Sports Olympiad .
30-399: Pacru is played on a 9x9 grid where each point in the grid is called a "field". The grid is divided into nine borderlands, each consisting of nine fields. Pieces are called "chevrons" in the official rules. Each player starts with 3 pieces (in the 3- or 4-player version) or 4 pieces (in the 2-player version). During play, each player will attempt to place markers of their colour on the board with
60-420: A border and moves into a new borderland, a marker must be placed on any unoccupied (i.e. empty) field. Later in the game, some borderland areas may be completely filled with markers with no empty fields. When this happens, the player must replace any of the opponents' markers in the area with their own, returning the marker to their opponent. If the area is already completely filled with markers of their own colour,
90-839: A central London venue, the Royal Horticultural Halls , Westminster and again on 21–31 August 2009 The 2010 event was held at the Soho Theatre in London. In 2011, the Mind Sports Olympiad moved to a bigger venue, the University of London Union . The 16th MSO took place once again at the University of London Union in 18–27 August 2012, and similarly the 17th MSO was also at ULU. The main MSO event remains truly international, because it
120-428: A long event, but otherwise any five events from the schedule could be used. The Pentamind champion is the player with the highest numerical score in "pentamind points" from 5 valid events. This is calculated using the formula 100 x (n - p) / (n - 1), where n is the number of players and p is the player's position in an event. The position is the position before tie-breaks and any split positions are shared amongst all of
150-464: A marker is also placed in the area to which the piece has moved. When a piece has no legal moves it is "blocked". This happens when: Pieces may become unblocked by the actions of other pieces, but can also be unblocked by "rotation". To rotate, the player rotates their piece forty-five (one rotation) or ninety (two rotations) either left or right. When they do this, the player removes 2 markers (45-degree rotation) or 4 markers (ninety degree rotation) as
180-505: A marker of their own colour (see Connections below). As in the previous section, if the piece crosses a border with a long-range jump, a marker is placed in the area to which the piece has moved. A jump from a marker of their own colour to another marker of their own colour is called a "connection". When this happens, the player must fill in the fields between the start and end fields with their own colour. This may involve replacing markers of another player (these markers should be returned to
210-424: A marker of their own colour. The exception is during piece capture (see Capturing below). When a piece crosses a border, a marker must be placed on any empty field in the borderland area to which the piece has moved. Markers may be placed on unoccupied fields only. All pieces are always able to move at least one square. If the borderland in which the piece starts its move has N markers of the players' colour, then
240-469: A number of different universities. The event was still going strong for the years 2001–2006. The main 2004 event featured a separate event for schools, featuring competitions and activities in chess, Go, quizzes and intelligence puzzles. But in 2007 the Mind Sports Olympiad was reduced to a much smaller venue in Potters Bar due to no sponsorship and no advertising. In 2008 the MSO saw a revival, returning to
270-430: A special meeting bonus which is to place one of their markers anywhere on the board, provided the field is unoccupied. The field may have a marker of their opponents' colour, in which case the replaced marker should be returned to your opponent. Meetings are by movement only. It is not possible to rotate into a meeting. Meetings are hard to achieve, and games are likely to have none. In tournament play (see below), no benefit
300-506: Is gained by a meeting if the opponent has 8 or fewer markers on the board. There are three win conditions in Pacru: The game has been included at the annual Mind Sports Olympiad or at a World Championship event hosted by the inventor (Mike Wellman). The World Championships have been won multiple times by Pentamind champions Alain Dekker, David M. Pearce and Martyn Hamer . Time controls for
330-411: Is still regarded as the foremost competition for all-rounders especially the "coveted Pentamind World Championship", won in 2010 by Paco Garcia De La Banda from Spain , while the 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2016 Pentamind World Champion Andres Kuusk is from Estonia . When the MSO was initially formed in 1997, the main organisers included David Levy , Tony Buzan , and Raymond Keene with David Levy being
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#1732880857266360-482: The Abstract Games world championship in 2008. The first world amateur poker championships was held in 1998 as part of the second Mind Sports Olympiad. The inaugural event was criticised for the standard of the play and for the events unique feature as only being played for medals and not for money. However, since the poker internet revolution the event continued to flourish with increased numbers. The event also
390-583: The COVID-19 pandemic , for the first time, the entire MSO tournament was held online. The first Mind Sports Olympiad was held in London's Royal Festival Hall in 1997. It brought together an unprecedented number of strategy games and events. William Hartston in The Independent said, "The biggest gamesfest ever to hit these (or perhaps any other) shores". The inaugural MSO along with a very large number of games, introduced two new events of their own creation
420-573: The Pentamind and the Decamentathlon . These were two events to parallel the multi-event games in athletics of the modern pentathlon and the decathlon . This was part of the ambition to create an Olympics of the mind. The Mind Sports Olympiad returned to London with sponsorship in both 1998 and 1999. Despite a falling out between the organisers a successful event was held in Alexandra Palace
450-551: The MSO organisers originally envisaged having their own ratings and ranks system, however, not all of these ideas came to pass. The MSO continues to give its own ranks of up to International Grandmaster. The Mind Sports Olympiad main event was at large venues for the first four years before being reduced in size due to funding difficulties. It has been held annually since 1997 at the following locations in England : The MSO consists mainly of single event competitions most of which are for
480-532: The World Championships have varied, with 20 minutes + 10 seconds-per-move being typical. In tournament play, no additional benefit is gained by a meeting if the opponent has 8 or fewer markers on the board (see Meetings above). Mind Sports Olympiad The Mind Sports Olympiad ( MSO ) is an annual international multi-disciplined competition and festival for games of mental skill and mind sports by Mind Sports Organisation . The inaugural event
510-764: The best all-round games player in the world before being superseded by the Pentamind. The Decamentathlon comprises 10 events scored out of 100, lasting 4 hours largely consisting of examined papers. The following eight mental skills have always been part of the Decamentathlon: memory skills , mental calculation , IQ , chess , Go , Othello , 8 by 8 draughts , and creative thinking . MSO also organizes Mental Calculation World Championship separately. The original two mental skills were bridge and Mastermind , although these have varied in recent years using Backgammon and most recently Sudoku as substitutes. The MSO introduced
540-403: The cost for rotation. Markers may be taken from unoccupied fields only and can be anywhere on the board. Note that rotation is the players full turn i.e. the player does not get a rotation and move in the same turn. A "meeting" occurs when a piece moves such that at the end of the move (including placement of any markers) the following conditions are met: When a meeting occurs, the player gets
570-464: The eventual goal of dominating the board. A field with neither a piece or marker on it is called "unoccupied". Pieces in Pacru point in a particular direction. When they move, they may move straight ahead or forty-five degrees to the left or right of the direction the piece is facing. The piece ends the move pointing in the direction of movement. Pieces may only land on a field that is unoccupied, or which has
600-461: The next year in 2000. During this time several satellite events were held around the world bearing the Mind Sports Olympiad name. These have occurred in Cambridge , England; Singapore ; Seoul , South Korea ; Milan , Italy ; Oulu , Finland ; and Prague , The Czech Republic . The Mind Sports Olympiad main event continued to happen with smaller sponsorship and the tournaments were held at
630-407: The nominal title of Olympiad champion, though some trademarked games are authorised by the game designer and publishers as the official world championships . All games, whether an Olympiad or the official World championship, can count towards the Pentamind. Medals, and more recently trophies, are awarded for gold, silver and bronze positions in each competition as well as ranks, with similar awards for
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#1732880857266660-414: The opponent). The exception is if the moves jumps over another piece (friendly or not), when there is no benefit. If a piece makes both a long-range connection jump and also crosses a border, the player must choose between filling in the fields (for the jump) or getting one marker in the area to which the piece moved (for the border crossing). It is not possible to get both benefits. When a piece crosses
690-489: The original founder of the MSO concept. As of 2012 the board running the MSO along with David Levy are Tony Corfe and Etan Ilfeld The Olympiad's logo depicted Ajax playing Achilles , used for their medals and awards is based upon the famous depiction found on over 150 items of ancient pottery from around 500 BC . Probably based either on an item from The British Museum or Vatican Museum collections. Alongside bestowing titles of Olympiad and World Champions ,
720-478: The piece may move up to N squares. As an example, say the Red player has a piece on e1 (using chess algebraic notation) and the borderland area has four Red markers in it. Their piece may move to any of the following squares: Moves are always in straight lines. It is not allowed to change direction during long moves. Pieces may not jump over other pieces (irrespective of colour) except if the start and end fields already have
750-432: The player receives no benefit. If any field is empty but occupied by a piece, then the area is not completely filled and no marker may be placed on this field. When a piece is able to move onto the field occupied by one of the opponents' pieces, the piece is said to be "under attack". Attack is mutual if both players' pieces attack each other. In order to capture, however, the player must have two (or move) pieces attacking
780-407: The same enemy piece. It is not sufficient to capture with only one attacking piece. Capturing, as in chess, is by replacement. Move one of the attacking pieces onto the opponents' field, remove the enemy piece and place a marker on the field, replacing an opponents' marker (if any). Note that a marker on the attacked field does not protect the enemy piece. If the attacking piece also crosses a border,
810-554: The tied players. When there are fewer than 10 players in a tournament, the score is multiplied by a secondary factor [p / (p + 1)]. As of 2024 , the World Championship Pentamind event has been won a record six times by Andres Kuusk, surpassing the five times set by Demis Hassabis and the fifth win Ankush Khandelwal. The Decamentathlon World Championship was originally established as the main event to determine
840-640: The top juniors in each event. In early Olympiads sponsorship allowed for generous financial prizes to go with many of the events. In recent years such prizes have been limited to a small number of events, usually as a result of specific outside sponsorship for that discipline. Notable games include (most other references mention some of these): the well-known: chess , bridge , draughts , shogi , backgammon , Chinese chess (xiangqi) , Othello , poker , cribbage , Mastermind ; and many newer games like: Abalone , Bōku , Continuo , Entropy , Kamisado , Lines of Action (LOA) , Octi , Pacru , TwixT This
870-484: Was held in 1997 in London with £100,000 prize fund and was described as possibly the biggest games festival ever held. The MSO was the first event of its kind celebrating mental skills and awarding gold, silver and bronze medals for each event and was highly influential on the mind sports movement and competitions that have followed since. The main MSO tournament has been held every year in England . In 2020, due to
900-461: Was one of the Mind Sports Olympiad's original events. It was an attempt along with the decamentathlon to produce an event for all-rounders to parallel the Olympic Games with its events the decathlon and pentathlon. Unlike the decamentathlon's fixed format (see separate article) the pentamind has very little fixed format. It disallows using games that are considered too similar and normally requires
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