You are going to build a matchbox robot and teach it to play Hexapawn so that it always wins. To start with your robot will make random moves and will lose many times. But each time it loses you will discipline it and teach it strategies so it will ultimately win every time.

To build your robot you will need:
	•	one game of Hexapawn (see below);
	•	24 empty matchboxes (any small boxes will do, say tic-tac boxes or thumb-tac boxes or you could even use disposable cups);
	•	a copy of the diagrams showing the robot’s possible moves (see below);
	•	a supply of coloured beads (jellybeans, smarties or M&Ms are good);
	•	a pair of scissors and some glue.

To make your robot:
	1.	Cut up the copy of the robot’s moves as shown below and glue the 24 diagrams to the faces of the 24 matchboxes.
	2.	Take a matchbox and on the diagram you have glued to its face colour each of the arrows a different colour. For each colour you have used place a bead of that colour inside the matchbox.
	3.	Repeat this for all 24 matchboxes. Each matchbox will contain the same number of beads as arrows on its face and the colours of the beads will match the colours of the arrows.

The Robot's 24 moves:
(To print the Robot's moves click Word Document or PDF Document. Once you have printed the moves hit Back to return to this article.)

You will now play Hexapawn with Mc’Match the Robot.