Welcome to the game of Xong™

(pronounced "zong")

Xong™ was invented by Nathan A. Smith in 1996.
It is an abstract game with no advantage to the first or second player.
No game ends in a tie.  There are no deadlocked positions, no repeating cycles.


  • read the Rules for playing Xong™

    In which the author attempts to clearly describe the Seven Rules of Xong™....

  • The Beastiary: view a partial listing of xoids used in Xong™

    In which a table of common Xoids is presented in simple ascii characters, with names, data and commentary, providing a useful sidebar reference for beginners & would-be experts.

  • Study an Illustrative Random Xong game!

    In which the author presents an HTML 20-page detailed description of a sample game from recent study. Using the WOODXONG version of the applet which allows for background jpegs to be read by the applet, each page shows a snapshot of the game as it develops. There are page navigation links at the bottom to cycle through the moves made. This opens a separate window as well and if your memory is as bad as mine, you can have the Beastiary file open beside it for handy reference. What in the world is a Skate Egg Case? OOOooops - guess i left that one out of the Beastiary. Imagine a double Crab connected along its back, facing each way.

  • Try playing a java implementation of Random Xong™

    In which a Java2 applet implements a version of Random Xong™ for a single workstation.

    The Random Xong™ applet opens a new browser window, as do the Rules & Beastiary links.  This allows people to continue to surf the net with their original window.  Infact, players may want to have the Beastiary window open and off to the side in order not to forget which small Xoids havent been played yet. Afterall, this game is NOT designed to be a memory contest.

    This workstation applet is designed to play against itself, with opponents taking turns sitting down at the same keyboard.  They can build new Xoids by clicking vacant legs, connecting them together and then giving them to each other.  Then the piece can be dragged around & clicked into proper rotation to where the player wants it, using the mouse.  Then they commit the move.  The applet automatically flags hexagons for future claims & darkens out hexes touched by both players.  It even has a functional automatic cashing ability to mark hexes as they get roped off.  And, of course, a running tally of the current score appears along each side.

    WARNING: If you hit Reload or Refresh on your browser, the game is lost and a new random board is generated - so be careful.  However, this can be useful in a fun way - if you don't like the random board you got when you loaded the page, hit reload until you do.  But dont keep your opponent waiting too long.  HOWEVER it is true that the RESET button in the game board area will generate a new blank random board much more quickly, provided no pieces have been played yet.

    The Random Xong™ Java applet represents the state of the art in Xong implementation.  When downloaded to a linux platform, the java file can be used to play via email, using standard I/O redirects, with appletviewer.
    To find out how, send email to me, Nate Smith, at the address below. 


    Please email questions or comments to [email protected]