Welcome to the World of TRAX
What is TRAX?
- using identical square tiles
- with straights on one side
- and curves on the other
The rules of TRAX are simple: place tiles adjacent to those already in play such that the colours of the tracks match. The objective is to get a loop or line of your colour while attempting to stop your opponent in their colour. What gives Trax its strategic depth is the forced play rule which allows (or even requires) multiple tiles to be played in a turn.
TRAX was invented in New Zealand by David Smith in 1980 and is now sold and played in many countries.
Learnable in 5 minutes, TRAX can be as easy or as challenging as you want it to be which is why it has been variously described as everything from "the best strategy game I have ever seen" to "the purest strategy game ever invented".
This sample game is often referred to as "Suckers opening".
White's mistake on turn 3 allows Red to win on turn 14 with a closed
loop.