Lesson 1 · A goal is not open all round
Garden 1 · The Far Side


One cat, one bowl, and a single line of stones running down the garden. There is nobody to avoid and nothing to time, so what is left is the rule the whole game is built on, on its own and with nothing in front of it: a bowl has one way in.
Look under the bowl and there is an arrow. It points east, which means she has to arrive walking west — she has to come at it from the far side, which is what the garden is called. The stones that lie nearest her front door are all on the wrong side of it. So the route is not "get to the bowl". It is "get past the bowl, then turn and come back into it".
That is exactly what the answer does. She comes down the stairs, crosses the row directly above the bowl without stopping, steps down to the stone on its eastern side, and walks back in. Eleven beats, and once you have seen which side you must arrive from, the field is one stone wide the whole way and there is nothing else left to choose.
· 1 cat · 9 stones drawn


































































































