David J Bush - 2005-10-27

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Indeed, link removal is part and parcel of the original
rules written by Alex Randolph. It is rarely used, but
sometimes it's the only way to avoid a draw (or even a
loss.) Of course, you may remove only your OWN links on your
move. You may, in fact, add and remove your own links any
way you want on your turn. For example, you are allowed to
add a link between two pegs of yours which were already on
the board prior to placing your peg.

You might be interested in the approach used by Kevin Walker
with his similar software Jtwixt, which you can download at
http://canyon23.net/jgame/README_twixt.html

Jtwixt does not have Internet capability, but it's a great
virtual board and game database manager. You can examine and
store an entire branching tree of variations, not just a
single game line. Link removal is supported.

If you have the (non-free) Windows software "Zillions of
Games," you can download and run the free Twixt package at
http://www.zillionsofgames.com/games/twixt.html

Zillions offers a free demo, but you have to buy the
registration key to use the Twixt package. I mention it
because it uses, in my opinion, the ideal mouse interface
scheme for link removal and rearrangement:

* On your move, click on the middle of any link of yours to
remove it. It will still be your move.

* On your move, click on any peg of yours already on the
board to automatically add all legal links to that peg. It
will still be your move.

You can do either of the above in any order or combination,
as much as you like on your turn.

* On your move, click on any empty hole (which is not part
of either of your opponent's border rows.) A peg of yours
will be placed there, all legal links will be added to it,
and your turn will end.

A possible drawback to this scheme is, you are not able to
refrain from adding all legal links to the peg you are
placing this move. But this is never disadvantageous in
terms of game play, as far as I can tell. You could always
remove these links on a subsequent move of yours.I prefer
this scheme because it is intuitive and easy to learn. Some
means of cancelling the entire move and starting over would
probably be helpful also.

This scheme becomes more complicated to implement over a
realtime Net connection, of course. You may prefer to send
just one move which contains all the link rearrangement
information, instead of multiple "partial moves" which do
not change whose turn it is. But the user could still see
the effect of his/her partial moves as they are made, even
though nothing has been sent to the opponent yet.

Thanks for your patience.