Little Knives

In my pre-teens days (Russia in the 1990s), one of the most popular games among boys was Little Knives — nozhichki; or rather, it was a whole class of games, with many games within it.

The most common variety was called Lands.

A large circle is drawn with a knife in dry dirt and then divided into as many sectors as there are players. The sectors must be large enough for the players to be able to stand comfortably within their home sectors, their “lands.” Players take turns throwing the knife, so that it spins in the air, into a neighbor’s territory. Then, a line is drawn from the border of one sector to another, through the plane of the knife's blade.

The defending player chooses one of the two parts, and the other is given to the attacker. The winner erases the boundary between his "land" and the part he just captured, thus adding it to his territory.

If the player whose land is reduced chooses the part adjacent to the knife-thrower's land, and the captured land does not share borders …