Hare games

The three dogs are represented by three pieces which normally start on one end of the board, and the hare is represented by one piece that usually starts in the middle of the board or is dropped on any vacant point in the beginning of the game.

Where hare games differ is that the hounds can only move forward or sideways, and not backwards.

Many preferred the narrow double-ended spearhead-like boards with orthogonal and diagonal lines running through them.

The more common one is a two-ended spearhead-like board with orthogonal and diagonal lines running through it.

Mathematician Martin Gardner in his October 1963 Mathematical Games column in Scientific American stated that hare and hounds "combines extreme simplicity with extraordinary strategic subtlety".

He demonstrates that white (the hounds) wins given perfect play, regardless of the starting position of black (the hare).