To give you a first impression of what the game is all about, let’s have a look at its name: The term “Gordian knot” is used to describe a complex or unsolvable problem and dates back to Alexander the Great. When he marched his army into the capital of Gordium (an ancient city in Turkey), he encountered an ancient wagon. This wagon had its yoke tied so tight, that it was supposedly impossible to see how they were fastened. As the story goes, an oracle had declared that any man who unraveled the elaborate knots of this wagon was destined to become ruler of all of Asia. Now, this is where the stories differ. One version of the legend says that he drew his sword and sliced the knot in half. Another one says that he pulled out a lynch pin that loosened the knot enough for him to unfasten it. Whatever the right version of the legend is, the Gordian knot stays the same, and I would say it is time to get into the game.
What do you need?
Lucky for you, there is no equipment needed for this game. You can play it everywhere and at any time. As long as you have at least four players, though I recommend playing with around ten people, there is nothing stopping you from playing “the Gordian Knot”.
How to play?
You start the game by forming a circle with all of the players. Try to keep the circle small with only little space between each players. Once the circle is formed, every player lifts up both of their arms and holds them in front of their body. The players then close their eyes and on the count of three, every player takes a step forward. Everyone now has to try to find two other hands that they can hold hands with, without knowing whose they are since their eyes are closed. If someone can’t find an empty hand, you have to communicate to find other players that also still have an empty hand left. When each hand is holding another hand, the players can open their eyes. By blindly grabbing other people’s hands, a Gordian knot was created. Here comes the hard part: As a group, the players have to try to untie this knot and become one circle again. However, the knot-untying is more difficult than you might suspect at first. The players are not allowed to let go of each other’s hands which means that you can only succeed by working together as a group, communicating and trying out different possible solutions.
Though, in some cases, the Gordian Knot stays true to its name and presents itself as an unsolvable problem. Since you have no influence on whose hand grabs whose, it can happen that the knot is impossible to untie, which you can often figure out by either already having tried out a lot of different ways on how to solve it or by having a closer look at it. If this happens, you can simply let go of each other’s hands and start a new round.
I hope you enjoy this game and have fun playing!
