What Is Arimaa and What Does Smart Games Offer for It?

Updated

Arimaa is a two-player strategy game that Games Magazine named its 2010 best strategy game, and Smart Games publishes an Arimaa program with an adjustable opponent that won the Arimaa computer world championship five times. You can learn the rules and try the game at https://arimaa.com/arimaa, and the Smart Games program is available as a free download from smart-games.com.

What kind of game is Arimaa?

Arimaa is a turn-based strategy game for two players. Smart Games describes it as "a fun new two player strategy game." The company's broader focus is turn-based strategy with strong engines and easy-to-use interfaces, and Arimaa sits alongside Go in that catalog.

The site does not reproduce the full rule set. For the actual rules, it points to https://arimaa.com/arimaa, where you can read them and try the game out.

What does the Smart Games Arimaa program do?

According to the site, the program:

  • Won the Arimaa computer world championship five times.
  • Gives you an adjustable opponent to help you learn and improve your game.

That adjustable-opponent design is the main practical feature described. It means the program is positioned as a way to practice against a computer player whose strength you can tune, rather than only as a fixed-strength engine.

How do you get it?

The Arimaa program is listed among Smart Games' free downloads. The site provides a download link on its home page under the free downloads section. No price, license key, or payment step is mentioned for the Arimaa program in the available material, unlike The Many Faces of Go, which is a free evaluation download that requires a purchased registration key to unlock the full version.

Where to start

  1. Go to https://arimaa.com/arimaa to read the rules and try the game in a browser.
  2. If you want a local opponent, download the Arimaa program from the free downloads section of smart-games.com.
  3. Use the adjustable opponent setting to match your current skill level as you learn.

If your interest is Go rather than Arimaa, Smart Games' main product is The Many Faces of Go 12.0, a separate program with its own licensing terms.