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Multiple realities
(covers information from several alternate timelines)
Kal-toh

An incomplete kal-toh

Kal-toh finished

A completed kal-toh

For the similarly named, please see Kalto Province.
"Kal-toh is as much a game of patience as it is of logic."
– Tuvok, 2378 ("Endgame")

Kal-toh was a Vulcan game of intense strategy that could be played solitaire or by multiple individuals.

The object of kal-toh, as stated by Tuvok, was "not about striving for balance but about finding the seeds of order even in the midst of profound chaos." A kal-toh set consisted of a number of playing rods called t'an. Harry Kim rather described it as "The object of the game is to turn this jumble of rods into a perfect sphere", and that each player took turns to position pieces, the one managing to form the final intended shape winning. (VOY: "Alter Ego", "Riddles")

When Kim referred to kal-toh as "Vulcan chess", Tuvok commented that, "Kal-toh is to chess as chess is to tic-tac-toe." (VOY: "Alter Ego") Kim played several games with Tuvok, noting that it was surprisingly addictive for a game of pure logic, although he never managed to defeat Tuvok before Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant. (VOY: "Alter Ego", "The Omega Directive", "Riddles", "Endgame")

A common error among novice players was to place the t'an on opposite sides of the kal-toh attempting to introduce a spatial balance, a strategy that would most certainly fail. (VOY: "Alter Ego")

In the holoprogram created by The Doctor, EMH program 4C in 2373, the holograms of Socrates and T'Pau played kal-toh together. (VOY: "Darkling")

Tuvok, Icheb, and Kim often played a match of kal-toh together. Tuvok had been taking lessons from a master from age five. Icheb also was quite talented with the game, although Tuvok blamed Icheb's first victory over him on an early manifestation of his degenerative neurological condition. (VOY: "Alter Ego", "Endgame")

During a game played by Tuvok and Kim, Seven of Nine took a turn for Kim and beat Tuvok in one move, claiming she used elementary spatial harmonics to do so. (VOY: "The Omega Directive")

In 2399, Seven of Nine and Raffaela Musiker played kal-toh aboard La Sirena. (PIC: "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2")

A kal-toh game was present in Lt. John Foster's quarters on the USS Titan in 2401. (PIC: "No Win Scenario")

In 2404 of an alternate timeline, Captain Kim kept a kal-toh game in his ready room aboard the USS Rhode Island. (VOY: "Endgame")

A completed game of kal-toh is in the shape of two nested icosidodecahedra connected by the center points of their edges.
A different game referred to as Vulcan chess was shown in TAS: "The Magicks of Megas-Tu".

External links[]

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