Interactive board game

Abstract

A pattern made from a magnetizable material ( 1 ) is placed below a board. A playing piece ( 6 ) contains a magnet ( 4 ), which interacts with the magnetic material ( 1 ). If placed on special fields on the board, the playing piece slides away and stops ( 7 ) near the centre of another field on the board. The special fields are predetermined by the hidden magnetic pattern. The movement of the playing piece along the surface of the board of the board game comes as a surprise until the player memorizes all possible configurations of special fields for a fixed magnetic pattern. The pattern made from the magnetizable material can be varied before the beginning of each game. The disruption of the game caused by the movement of the playing piece to another field of the board of the board game introduces an extra degree of chance to the game of skill.

1 . An apparatus for playing a game comprising: 
 a piecewise-flat or piecewise-smooth game board having two surfaces;    a piecewise-flat or piecewise-smooth pattern made from a magnetizable material, said pattern is placed below one of the surfaces of said board as a separable or an integrated component; 
 said pattern further comprising plurality of areas partially free from the magnetizable material and plurality of convergent protrusions made from the magnetizable material;  
 said protrusions are directed inwards of at least some said areas which are partially free from magnetizable material;  
   a magnet integrated inside a playing piece, said playing piece is placed during a game on the other surface of said board; said surface of the board is served as a playing surface of said game apparatus;    whereby a variation of the geometry of said pattern along the surface of said board and magnetic interaction between the magnetizable material of said pattern and said magnet integrated inside said playing piece provide a means for enforcing a sliding movement of said playing piece along the surface of said board and a means for defining the direction for said sliding movement.    
   
   
       2 . The apparatus of  claim 1  further comprising said board with plurality of fields defined graphically on the playing surface of said board; wherein said convergent protrusions made from magnetizable material have a preferred triangular-like shape; the vertex of said protrusion is located near the centre of one of the fields of the playing surface, the base of said protrusion is located inside an adjacent field of the playing surface.  
   
   
       3 . The apparatus of  claim 1  further comprising plurality of playing pieces with magnets integrated inside said playing pieces whereby a magnetic field of additional playing pieces placed adjacent to said playing piece provides a means for affecting the direction for said sliding movement of said playing piece.  
   
   
       4 . The apparatus of  claim 1  further comprising an additional means for supporting at least the part of said board at an angle to the horizontal; said angle is adjusted so as to permit the sliding movement of the playing piece subjected to the force of gravity and to stop said sliding movement if the continuous magnetizable material is placed below the surface of the board; 
 the in-plane gravity force provides an additional means for enforcing the sliding movement of the playing piece of  claim 1  and an additional means for defining the direction for the sliding movement of the playing piece placed upon areas partially free from magnetizable material.    
   
   
       5 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein said pattern is further made by a method selected from a group consisting of providing plurality of specially shaped holes in a continuous sheet of magnetizable material and overlaying separate pieces of magnetizable material on a non-magnetizable substrate.  
   
   
       6 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein said pattern is further made from silicon steel.  
   
   
       7 . The apparatus of  claim 1  wherein said pattern is further reversibly separable from the apparatus and assembled from one or several parts, each part having two surfaces and several sides; the pattern can be reassembled before the beginning of each game by using a combination of changing the location of said parts, their rotation and flipping.