Cities
Players name real cities in turn, each beginning with the last letter of the one before; whoever cannot remember one is out.
The first player names any city, the next names one beginning with the letter the previous name ended with, and so round the table. Moscow — Astrakhan — Novosibirsk — Kursk.
The game rests not on knowing geography but on how geography is distributed: everyone has cities on the common letters in reserve, while a few letters occur a handful of times in the whole world, and steering a neighbour onto one is the only tactic available. Experienced players deliberately end on a rare letter and wait.
The other thing that decides a game is . After half an hour the easy names are spent, the circle keeps returning to the same letters, and the player knocked out is not the one who knows the map least but the one who first forgot what had already been said.
Cities and geography
The same method is used for more than cities: countries, rivers, names, animals, plants — the chaining rule does not change, only what may be named. That is agreed before the start: cities cannot be mixed with countries halfway through, or an argument over whether a river counts is certain.
Rules of Cities
Order
Play goes in turn, round the table. The first player names any city that exists.
A turn
Each player in turn names a city beginning with the of the previous name.
Where a name ends in a letter that cannot begin a word, the letter before it is taken instead.
What is not allowed
Naming a city that has already been said in this game.
Using a map, a reference book or a telephone. The game runs on memory, and that is the whole of it.
Going out
A player who cannot name a fitting new city is out; the turn passes to the next.
End of the game
The game ends when one player is left — and that player has won.
A long game in which nobody gives way is stopped by agreement as a draw.
Worth knowing
What counts as a city is nowhere agreed: some groups accept any settlement, others only cities, and others still allow countries and rivers, playing "at geography" instead. Thinking time varies as well — sometimes there is none, sometimes a count of ten. Letters that almost no city begins with may or may not be skipped in favour of the one before.
Glossary of terms
- A repeat
- A city already named in this game. It may not be said again, even if it fits the letter.
- The last letter
- The letter a named city ends with, and the one the next city must begin with. Where a name ends in a soft or hard sign, the letter before it is taken.