New Games

All of the games in this category:

MSO 2012

Don't miss out on the opportunity to win one of the major trophies on offer. Especially the prestigous 2012 Pentamind



World Amateur Poker

Live poker open to everyone even under 18s.

We don't play for money just medals and the title of amateuer World Champion!



MSO Entropy Tournaments

Free Teaching Session
Sessions1
21st August 201310:00
free
World Championship
Sessions2
21st August 201314:15
21st August 201319:00
£15 / £13.50
Home >  Games >  New Games >  Entropy

Entropy (Hyle)

Categories:  Abstract Games Board Games New Games

Although you probably have never seen the game outside of the MSO this is the most popular game amongst the game players at the MSO. It appeals to players from all game backgrounds. It is the blend of colours and patterns that are made in such a way as to be totally different from all other games. Although drawing counters from a bag would appear to be a high luck game, this is not the case when played at its top level with Demis Hassabis having achieved a 7 year winning streak (although not turning up to defend his World Champion title every year) where he won every single game. This eventually came to an end in 2007 when he lost to Alain Dekker with David Pearce winning the event for the second time.

Rules

Entropy is always played with two rounds where on the second round the players swap roles. The 7 colours each have seven counters. All of which are placed in a bag. One player takes counters out of the bag one at a time, this player is called chaos. Chaos then puts the counter in the open so that the other player, known as Order, can see it. This can be placed anywhere on the board where there is no other piece. Order can move any piece on the board like a rook in Chess. The piece can be moved either horizontally or vertically as long as its path does not cross any piece on the board. Order is trying to score points. These points are scored by any symmetry that is present at the end of the game either horizontally or vertically but not diagonally. This symmetry does not need to run through the middle point of the board. Each symmetry scores the length of it. So a line with ABA in it would score 3 points for the ABA. You score points for all of the patterns made in the line. So an AAAA structure scores AA x3 and AAA x2 and AAAA x1 which gives a total of 16 points. The players swap after the first round and the person who scores the most points as Order is the winner. As in all games where tiles are drawn from a bag. The bag should be held above the drawing players head so that they cannot see in the bag. If Chaos runs out of time then Order gets to play both players moves. If Order runs out of time then Chaos has to continue until the board is full. If both players run out of time then the pieces should be drawn from the bag at random filling the board from the top left corner, left to right downwards (from Chaos's perspective).

You can find out about opportunities to play Entropy live at the timetable. Please report any external links that have broken or have changed to contain inappropriate material. More information about how tournament play works can be found in clocks and in MSO rules.

MSO Entropy Champions

YearNameCountryFlagTitle
2011 Peter Horlock England World Champion
2010 Paco Garcia De La Banda Spain World Champion
2009 Alain Dekker South Africa World Champion
2008 Peter Horlock England World Champion
2007 David Pearce England World Champion
2006 Demis Hassabis England World Champion
2005 Peter Horlock England World Champion
2004 Demis Hassabis England World Champion
2003 Demis Hassabis England World Champion
2002 David Pearce England World Champion
2001 Demis Hassabis England World Champion
2000 Demis Hassabis England World Champion
1999 George Hassabis England World Champion
1998 Peter Horlock England World Champion
1997 Murray Heasman England World Champion

Full results and other winners can be found in Results.

MSO Entropy Ranked Players:

GRANDMASTERS:

  Alain Dekker, David Pearce, Demis Hassabis, Peter Horlock

INTERNATIONAL MASTERS:

  George Hassabis, Paco Garcia De La Banda, Tony Niccoli

CANDIDATE MASTERS:

  Susan Lalic, Tim Hebbes


External Links

http://www.ericsolomon.co.uk/en/entropy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_(board_game)