Wikipedia:Wikiwhacking

Wikiwhacking is an intellectually stimulating internet game.

The game is somewhat similar to the famous Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Game (see Oracle of Bacon) played on the Internet Movie Database, while the name is inspired by the Googlewhacking game popularised by Dave Gorman in his recent book Dave Gorman's Googlewhacking Adventure.

It requires general knowledge, lateral thinking and a lot of spare time, but unlike Gorman's game, no air travel or unusual tattoos are involved.

The aim of the game is to find a connection between two random articles on Wikipedia using as few steps as possible. The fewer steps the better, but it is our current opinion based on many an hour wasted playing the game that any two articles can be linked in five steps or fewer.

It can be played solo, for the pure intellectual pleasure; or competitively, possibly for money.

The rules

1. Visit the Wikipedia homepage

2. Press the "Random article" link in the left menu. If you get anything other than an ordinary article, such as a disambiguation page, try again. Note down the title.

3. Press back, then use the "Random article" link again to retrieve a second article.

4. Articles that are obviously linked should be rejected and new selections made.

5. Now, by clicking only links from within articles, attempt to navigate from the second article back to the first.

6. You may make as many attempts as you like, by clicking links and using the browser's forward and back buttons, but you cannot search or use the "show articles that link to this" feature.

7. For competitive play, each player attempts to form a chain between the same two articles on separate computers. The winner is either the first person to find and demonstrate a five-link trail, or the person with the shortest trail at the end of an arbitrary, pre-determined time limit.

Have fun!