Two Players on One Device: Playing Board Games as a Family

You don’t need a shogi board or a go board at home to play a game with your family. One phone or tablet is enough to sit across from each other and play. StudyX Mindsports has a two-player mode where two people share one device.

In StudyX Mindsports Tips, I wrote some ideas for making two-player games a family habit. This post sticks to the practical side: how to start a game and how to choose the settings.

Games you can play two-player

These nine games support two players on one device:

Shogi
Disk Flip (a game with the same rules as reversi)
Chess
Go (9x9 board)
Block Place
Xiangqi
Backgammon
Checkers
International Draughts

Block Place is the only one where you can choose 2, 3 or 4 players. With two, each person plays two colours. With three, everyone shares the remaining colour. If three or more of you want to play, Block Place lets everyone join.

Daifugo and Mahjong work differently. Instead of passing one device around, each person joins from their own device with Nearby Play. Bridge is played at a table with three CPU players, so it has no two-player mode.

Starting a game

On the home screen, pick a game card from the Boards list. A match setup screen opens, and you choose from the top down.

Opponent: Choose “Human”. This is the two-player mode on one device. Choosing “CPU” means playing the computer at a level you pick.

Handicap: This only appears when you choose “Human”. More on it in the next section.

Your Side: Choose first or second, or “Random”.

Time Limit: Turn it on and you can choose the time per player, from 1 minute up to 60 minutes. Both players get the same time.

Once you start, one board appears. The player whose turn it is moves on the board, and then it is the other player’s turn. The design assumes the device lies on a table between two people sitting across from each other. In chess, go and Disk Flip, the turn display for the person on the far side faces them, so they can read it. In shogi, the promotion prompt faces the player whose turn it is. If you want to sit the other way round in shogi, a button rotates the board to swap the sides, as long as no move has been played yet.

When the game ends, the result appears. In a two-player game, if the person on the far side wins, the result faces them.

Handicaps when strengths differ

When a parent plays a child, the gap is usually too large for a real game. A parent can go easy, or set a handicap and play properly.

In two-player games, Mindsports offers these handicaps:

Shogi: Lance, Bishop, Rook, Rook-Lance, 2-Piece, 4-Piece and 6-Piece handicaps. The stronger player takes Gote, removes pieces and moves first. 2-Piece removes the rook and bishop, 4-Piece also both lances, and 6-Piece also both knights. Handicap games are covered in Teaching Shogi to Kids.

Go: 2 to 9 stones. Black places stones on the star points, and White plays first with no komi. The 9x9 board is covered in The 9x9 Go Board.

Chess: Pawn, Knight, Rook and Queen odds. White, the stronger player, removes a piece and moves first. With rook odds, only kingside castling is possible.

Disk Flip: 1 to 4 corners. The weaker player’s black stones start on the corners, and Black moves first. Corner stones can never be flipped, so even one corner makes a real difference.

Xiangqi: Horse, Two horses, Chariot, and Chariot + horse. Red, the stronger player, removes pieces and moves first.

Block Place, Backgammon, Checkers and International Draughts have no handicap setting. Backgammon uses dice, so even with a gap in strength, a child will win a fair number of games.

One way to set the handicap is to let results move it. For example, after a child wins twice in a row, make the handicap one step lighter, and after two losses in a row, one step heavier. A shrinking handicap is a clear sign of progress.

Using Undo

Press the Undo button and confirm “Undo the previous move?” to go back one move. Against the CPU, it takes back your move and the CPU’s together, but in a two-player game it goes back one move at a time.

Either side can use Undo, so it is worth agreeing on a family rule before you start. One rule is that only the child may use it. While learning the rules, children move pieces the wrong way or miss a piece that is about to be taken. Taking back a move and thinking again is less about avoiding a loss and more about learning the moves. As they get used to it, cut it down, say to three undos a game.

Using the clock

Both players get the same time, so you can’t use the clock as a handicap. For family games, you can start with the time limit off. A child thinking for a long time is not a bad thing.

Use the clock once both of you are comfortable. With a time limit on, the game feels tighter, and you can play several games in a short time. Xiangqi, Checkers, International Draughts and Backgammon also have a “Competition rules” option. Turning it on brings in rules such as adding 30 seconds per move when the clock is on (the details differ by game).

iPhone or iPad

Both work, but for playing face to face, the iPad is easier. The bigger screen means a bigger board, so the person across the table can read the pieces and see the stones clearly. On the iPad, buttons and text are also shown larger.

On an iPhone, sitting side by side can be easier than sitting across. In that case, pulling the device toward you when it is your turn works fine. The 9x9 go board and the 8x8 Disk Flip board have few squares, so they are easier to see on an iPhone than most.

About Mindsports

StudyX Mindsports is an app with 12 mind games, including shogi, go and chess. It runs on iPhone, iPad and Android. Besides two-player mode, you can play the CPU from Lv.1 to Lv.50 and learn the rules in beginner lessons. If someone in the family doesn’t know a game, having them go through the beginner lesson first saves a lot of explaining.

The games and beginner lessons are free, with ads. Each game’s first advanced lesson is free too, and a one-time purchase opens the rest and removes the ads. How to use Mindsports is in Getting Started with StudyX Mindsports.