Sorts

A memory duel for two, the shelf’s only one. A compositor’s case holds sixteen sorts face down — eight PAIRS of letters, a through h, each worth its place (a 1 … h 8), dealt where the shuffle shook them. On your turn turn TWO sorts, one then the other: a MATCH claims the pair and pays its worth to your stick, and a match you FOUND — either sort unmarked when you turned it — lets you turn again; a match of two sorts that already stood marked is bookkeeping, and bookkeeping passes the turn. A MISMATCH marks BOTH sorts for the whole table — they stay face down but read their letters — and passes the turn. The case ends empty: the richer stick takes the work, and equal sticks stand shared, said plainly.

How it feels

• A marked letter waiting for its hidden partner
• The h pair coming up in one lucky turn
• Leaving the cheap pair on the case because the rival must take something

What the design is for

• 01

  The shelf’s only memory duel

  Pairs in the dark, turned two a go — and a pair you FIND lets you turn again, so one lucky line can take half the case. The engine hides the letters of every sort neither compositor has seen; a test proves the view never leaks them.

• 02

  A mismatch marks for both

  The twist with teeth: what one has seen, both have seen. Marked sorts stay readable forever, so the case fills with public knowledge and the duel becomes what you do with the dark that remains.

• 03

  Bookkeeping costs the turn

  A match of two sorts that already stood marked is filing, not composition: you claim it, and the case passes. One marked pair a turn is all you get — so the order is the game (take the h and leave the a, because the rival takes whatever you leave), and a pair you can FIND is worth more than a pair you can file, because finding one hands the case back to you. This rule is the reason there is a game here: while every marked pair could be claimed one after another, order and exploration could not matter, and the probe said so — three of the five old opponents measured 72–72, 72–72 and 67–75, flat, because there was nothing to be better at. With the rule in, the reading rung beats the grabbing rung 114–34.

• 04

  The worth is the letter

  a claims 1 and h claims 8: thirty-six points in the case, and the dearest letters decide close sticks. The reading rung sets 22.9 points of the thirty-six against the grabbing rung’s 18.7. Equal sticks stand shared, said plainly — the case honours no tiebreak.

• 05

  Taught letter by letter

  Six steps: the turn, the found match, the mark, the bookkeeping that costs the turn, the exploration that keeps it — and then a whole case to yourself. Five of the six name one place on the case and accept nothing else; four of them used to describe a first sort already turned while posing a case where nothing had been, so that pressing the sort the text named claimed nothing at all.