Iago
Iago Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Equipment
110 letter-tiles, printed in red on one side and in blue on the other.
A board with an 11×11 matrix, so grooved that the tiles may be easily turned over.
A "Differential Timer" with a one minute sand clock.
Two tile racks.
Tile bag.
The Game in Brief
The letter-tiles are blue on one side and red on the other. One player enters words with the blue side up, the other with the red side up. At each move the objective is to take the lead and end up with at least one more tile on the board than one's opponent. But words entered on the board are by no means permanent – they may be stolen – which is indeed the main point of the game. Whenever a player is able to change both the form and the meaning of an opponent's word, by substituting one or more letters in the word and/or by adding letters at either end, that player may steal it by turning over all of its letters, so that a previously blue word becomes a red one, or vice-versa.
(For example: suppose that Blue has entered the word POT, Red may steal it by preceding it with an S: SPOT; but Blue might snatch it right back by substituting the O with I and adding E at the end: SPITE; whereupon Red may steal it again by preceding it with D and I and substituting the I with a U: DISPUTE – etc.)
The game ends when a player is unable to take the lead on his turn and over-steps the time-limit.
The Timer – Description and Function
This simple device consists of a disc set in a plastic tray. The disc has three holes – the central hole for the sand timer, a finger hole for turning the disc and one through which the number of minutes of time allowed are shown.
The timer is positioned between the players at the side of the board and within easy reach of both. Place the sand timer in the central hole. Set the holes so that 5 is showing on the red and the blue dial; this means that both players begin the game with five minutes of allowed time. At the start of the first move (and after every subsequent move) the sand timer is turned over and the minute starts to run. If the minute runs out before a player has completed his move, i.e. has at least one more tile of his colour showing on the board, the sand timer is turned over again and the disc moved around by one minute. The disc is moved by the non-playing player in the direction which decreases the time for his opponent but increases his own by one minute.
(For example: if the move started at 5 it is now at 4 for the player whose turn it is, meaning that he has only 4 minutes still available.)
If the player now completes his move before the next minute runs out, the disc remains where it is and the move passes to his opponent – on whose colour that hole is marked 6, meaning that he has 6 minutes available (his 5 plus the minute consumed by his opponent). Thus the disc moves back and forward, changing direction after each move, until eventually one player loses on time, unable to complete his move before the sand runs out on his last minute.
Important Point: The first minute of every move is 'free'; if a move is completed before the first minute runs out, it is as if no time has been used at all – and the disc remains in the same position and the move passes to the other player.
How to Play
Preliminaries: Set up the board and the timer with 5 minutes available to both players (as described above).
Each player draws 12 tiles from the bag and places them on his tile-rack.
Players choose colours – red or blue – and decide by lot who will start the game. The player who does not have the first move turns the sand timer over, thereby starting the first player's first move.
The Move: Using the tiles on your rack, enter one or more words on the board with your colour up. The first word in the game should be positioned centrally; all subsequent words must be connected to this first word, or to each other – vertically or horizontally – as in a crossword puzzle.
If a minute runs out before you complete your move, your opponent turns the sand timer over and moves the disc by one minute (see detailed description of Differential Timer, above). If the minute runs out while you are completing a word on the board, you may complete it.
At the end of your move, three conditions must be fulfilled:
(1) All combinations of two or more letters on the board must form complete valid words, horizontally from left to right or vertically from top to bottom.
(2) You must have taken the lead: that is there must be at least one more letter of your colour on the board than of your opponent's colour. (Usually this can be seen at a glance. If it is not, your opponent may ask for a count. Counting is always done at the end of a minute, when the sand clock is not running.)
(3) You must not have over-stepped the time limit: the sand clock must not have run out if there was only one minute left to complete the move.
After you have completed your move, replenish at once your stock of letter tiles – draw from the bag as many as are needed to have 12 again on your rack – then turn the board towards your opponent, and finally turn the sand timer over and have the disc in the same position in which it was when you completed your move. This starts your opponent's move.
Valid Words: All words found in a standard dictionary are acceptable, in any grammatical form: plurals, participles, adverbial forms, etc., are all acceptable.
Not acceptable are proper nouns, foreign words, abbreviations and words requiring hyphens or apostrophes.
Stealing: To steal an opponent's word you must be able to change both its form and its meaning.
This may be done by adding letters at either end of the word and/or by substituting letters within the word, as follows: if the word has six letters or less, you may substitute one letter (only one); if the word has more than six letters, you may substitute all but five. Therefore, in a seven-letter word you may substitute two letters, in an eight-letter word three, in a nine-letter word four, etc. It follows that it is often easier to steal a long word than a short one. Once a word has been stolen it may not be changed back to the form it had previously.
(For example: if the word DEAR is changed to HEAR, it could then be changed to FEAR or NEAR, etc., but in no case back to DEAR.)
To qualify for a steal, the change of meaning must be genuine.
(For example: changing LOVE to LOVES or LOVING, while legitimate, does not qualify as a steal, therefore, only the S in LOVES or the ING in LOVING may be turned over. Whereas changing LOVE to LOVER does qualify, even though LOVER derives from LOVE, since there has been a manifest change in meaning.)
As soon as you have stolen a word you may change its colour by turning over all of its tiles.
Cross-Link Letters: When a new word, or a stolen word, crosses a word of the other colour, the link-letter is turned to the new colour.
Substituted Letters: Substituted letters removed from the board are not returned to the players' racks but are simply left on the table next to the board. Such letters remain available for use as a general letter pool by either player on any subsequent turn.
Challenge: You may challenge any word entered by your opponent if you do not believe that it is a real word. Such a challenge must be made immediately. (You may not challenge a word if your opponent has already started to work on another.)
Stop the sand clock (place it horizontally on the table) and check in the dictionary. If the challenge is sustained – the word cannot be found in the dictionary – your opponent must return the board to the state it was in before he entered the word; in addition, as a penalty, you may turn over any three of his letters. If the challenge is rejected – the word is found to be valid – your opponent may turn over any three of yours.
As soon as the challenge has been settled, set the sand clock in motion again and your opponent is allowed to finish his turn.
End of Game: The game is over when a player is unable to take the lead (unable to have at least one more letter on the board than his opponent) and his total allowed time runs out.