One of the best things of living in Switzerland, besides Rösti and an abundance of good cheese, is Brockis or Brockenhäuser, which are second-hand shops where you can find all sorts of things, from furniture to clothes, to books, musical instruments, toys, board games and more. They are not only a great example of circular economy, but also kind of window into the past and a treasure trove for someone searching for unique items or vintage finds.
The other day I found the beautiful board game pictured below. You will think that in the age of AI-powered search, identifying a game like this provided a description or a picture would be a matter of seconds. Not quite!
Does anyone know the name of this game or how it is played?
It’s a chess-like 3x3 board with two sets of four pieces each. I’m not sure if one of the pieces is redundant or if some pieces are missing. The white pieces appear to be llamas or alpacas, while the other pieces seem to be shepherds. The beautiful border seems to be decorative only.
The closest match I found was Hexapawn, and my friend Girts also suggested a form of Peruvian chess, or 3x3 chess.
Ultimate tic-tac-toe
(Added on 20.08.2025)
Although interacting with LLMs can be annoying, there may be a valuable lesson in the sometimes bizarre conversations: the importance of asking the right questions. To be fair, the same applies to people.
When I came across this game, I was convinced that it was a chess variant. That belief influenced my search and the questions I asked.
My Andean friends, Pablo Santamarina and Miguel Risco, suggested something simpler yet more plausible: tic-tac-toe and variants thereof. According to Miguel, this variation is called “el juego del gato” (the game of the cat) and is essentially tic-tac-toe with movable pieces. The rules are as follows:
- Each player has four pieces.
- Players take turns placing one piece at a time on the board.
- The objective is to get three pieces in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
- The game continues until one player gets three pieces in a row or all eight pieces are placed.
- If all eight pieces are placed and there is not yet a winner, the game continues instead of ending in a draw (as in traditional tic-tac-toe). In turn, each player can move one of their pieces to an adjacent empty square (horizontally or vertically) until one player gets three in a row.
Returning to the original question, I searched for “What kinds of board games can be played on a 3x3 chess-like board with two sets of four identical pieces each?” Surely, tic-tac-toe was among the suggestions.
- Tic-tac-toe
- Simplified checkers/draughts
- Mini chess
- etc, etc.
So, instead of trying to pin it down to one game, I decided to play them all.