Wikipedia:Wikirace

WP:RACE

A Wikirace (IPA: /ˈwɪ.ki.rɛɪs/) is a race between any number of participants, using links to travel from one Wikipedia page to another. The first person to reach the destination page, or the person that reaches the destination using the fewest links, wins the race. Intermediary pages may also be required.

The game originated in Liverpool, England sometime around 2010 and was the brainchild of - Stephen Scragg and Theo Di Caprio, both are now renowned as the “godfathers” of the Wiki Race game and an annual event is held in Coruna, Spain to celebrate them.

How to Wikirace

To Wikirace, first select a page off the top of your head. Using a randomized page works well, as well as the featured article of the day. This will be your beginning page. Next choose a destination page. Generally, this destination page is something very unrelated to the beginning page. For example, going from apple to orange would not be challenging, as you would simply start at the apple page, click a wikilink to fruit and then proceed to orange. A race from Jesus Christ to Subway (restaurant) would be more of a challenge, however. For a true test of skill, attempt Roman Colosseum to Orthographic projection if you want a very, very difficult game. Once you have selected a beginning page and a destination page, the race begins and the first person to reach the destination page wins. Finally, the racers are usually located in the same room, to be sure that no one has cheated. Wikiraces are common in classroom environments in which children are bored.

Rules

Obviously, editing your beginning page to have a link to the destination page is not allowed. Not only does this defeat the point of the race, but it will compromise the integrity of Wikipedia and anger the Wikipedia users.
Generally, the game aims to make use of the consumer version of Wikipedia (i.e. articles in mainspace). This means User pages and Talk pages are generally not allowed.
Using "Navigation", "Interaction", or "Toolbox" links (on left side of website on Desktop browsers) is not allowed.
A player may not use the Special:AllPages page to directly find the target page.
Disambiguation pages are allowed to be used.
"See also" links may not be used.

Optional rules

Make sure all participants know which optional rules (if any) are in use before starting the race.

Players may not use a browser's "Find" (ctrl-F) function.
Players may not use the "Back" button or any other feature of their browser which would allow them to view a Wikipedia article and then back-track to the previous page if they don't find the link they were hoping for. Some games allow the use of the "Back" button but count this as a link clicked.
The "Categories" bar may not be used.
The "United States" page or similar massive portals (e.g. geographical locations) may be disallowed for additional challenge

Good target pages

Belle Delphine - Difficult but not impossible
Dab (dance) - Almost impossible.
Bongbong Marcos - Only accessible from a certain dictator.
Mystery Seeker - Very, very hard to find. Found by pixar1995 on 12/10/19, Brotato The Great on 8/24/20, and WIKI Wizard of Wales on 04/23/21
Charlotte Dacre - Several links, but they're almost all years!
Goderich Airport - Nearly impossible, requires either going completely off topic, or using some mad wiki geography skills, scanning across Ontario.
Mashimaro - Very hard to find, especially since all of the obvious topics don't link to it.
Mother insult - Almost impossible.
Communism - Have to bounce around between obvious pages to find!
Keyhole - Seems quite easy at first glance, but not linked to anything obvious.
Utility pole - Has almost no links to it but it is possible.
Preparation H - Avoid searching this one in very public places.
Hot Pockets - Very hard, indeed.
IAR Systems - Nearly impossible, as there are nearly no links to it.
bananaman - Yeah speaks for itself.
Leawarra railway station, Melbourne - Go try this one, I think it's almost impossible!
Fu Manchu - Not impossible, but very difficult without using back arrows.
flip flop - Not impossible, but very difficult.
OtterBox - Not impossible, but obvious leads don't pan out
bingo - Not easy for newbies, but is for experts.
Bread crumb - Not impossible, but harder than you think.
Daniel L. Smith-Christopher - Most of the obvious leads don't seem to work, but it is possible.
Altoids - Average time: 5 minutes.
Gurn - At least 12 links known, extremely tough.
Ingrown nail - Very difficult, many disgusting images.
Tinder - Almost impossible.
Doorbell - Harder than you think.
S'well - Has very few usable links.
TLR10 - Good Luck.
Wikipedia:Wikirace - Has only been documented THIRTEEN TIMES! (Hall of Fame: Neatski, Glm705, One in a Zillion, 4thfounder, ThatGuy, New Shifter, kidneys3, Elitemagikarp, Maxio68, STAPVARS, Pixar1995, Reagan Whitenack, and Brotato The Great)
Home Depot - Mildly difficult.
Hello Kitty - Believed to be difficult,^{[according to whom?]} but an easy route for experts.
Topit - Nearly impossible, only 2 links known (excluding this one).
Kittredge (name) - Practically impossible, there is only 1 link to this page. It's in the "See Also" section of "Kittridge", which is also a page with only 1 link to it.
Touhou Project - Good luck, it's mildly difficult as the only links are within Japan.
SCP Foundation - Only a few links work!
Newton's cradle - Harder than you think; many obvious first steps require additional creativity to reach the conclusion. Really fun because there are multiple completely different angles from which you can approach it!
Timeline of historical geopolitical changes - Even the most intuitive routes take time.
Revolution - So many different pages link here, if you're imaginative, any starting page could probably reach it via different best path.
Pi Day - The March 14th holiday.
Spork - You know what it is, but how easy is it to reach?
Piggy bank - A few different creative ways to reach this one.
Count Dracula
Post-it Note - Requires significant critical thinking.
Wallet - Surprisingly challenging, many obvious pages will not work.

Easy pages

Jesus
Dictators are easily accessible from the page of their country. The country page is accessible from their continent, which can be found from the page “Continent”.
Sports athletes, teams, and events (such as Johnny Damon, Chicago Blackhawks or the Super Bowl) are incredibly easy to access, by taking nearly any link that has a connection with the United States. From the United States there is a section on sports, and many popular sports are accessible from there.
Music bands, artists, and albums are easily accessed by use of United States. There are links leading to music from the music section of the page, and all genres/subgenres imaginable are on that page.
Countries Most countries can be easily found by getting to any other country's foreign relations section. You can find countries based on external relations of said country. EU, UN etc.
Adolf Hitler Believed to be the original target page for Wikirace.^{[according to whom?]}
United Nations not that difficult to find, easy for beginners (can get in 3-4 clicks a lot)

Alternate: point-based rules (Wik's Degrees of Separation)

This version is designed to be played via message board or email.
Start at the main page.
Your starting point on this page is the FIRST link in the FIRST news item under "In the News".
Your ending point is the FIRST link in Today's Featured Article.
Beginning with your starting link, you must navigate links within Wikipedia in order to reach Today's Featured Article .
No editing pages to aid your advancement for this or future contests (though pages may always be edited for content where required).
No linking years.
5 points are added for each page you link to beyond the first and not counting the final page (so each page in between is 5 points).
25 points are added for returning to a previously viewed page either through backspace or the series of links.
On a one point per minute basis, add the total time it took you to the point total.
Fewest points wins. (NOTE: Post your starting link and your point total. The individual with the fewest points will post their links afterward for validation.)
There is another type of game called "Five Clicks to Jesus" where each player must link to the article of Jesus Christ following the standard wikirace rules.

Strategies

Wikiracing usually consists of two distinct strategies (not including random clicking). The first method is called the "Gate" or "Portal" method. When using the Gate method, one tries to locate a link to an article with a wide range of possible wikilinks contained in it. For example, the article on the United States is a good Gate, as it has multiple wiki links that can help you redirect to a new article that is somewhat relative to what you are looking for.

The second method, and more popular, is called the Background method. In this method, you apply all knowledge of the article you are looking for in order to find relative links. For example, if one was searching for Walt Disney, knowing where he was born (as background information) could help find more articles to search for that would, in turn, lead to your designated page.

The "disambiguation route" relies on the destination page having multiple meanings or interpretations. For example, a race to 'fan' could have different routes, either looking for "someone who has an intense appreciation for something(s) or someone(s)" or "a device to agitate or move air or other gas" then using the disambiguate feature to choose the correct page.

Helper Pages

Continent- can get you anywhere in the world!
Adolf Hitler- linked to from Germany. One can arrive at almost any race-related subject thus.
United States of America - It will get you anywhere within it!

Wikiracing websites

Wikipedia Game Online, multi-player game with free, no-login-needed playing. Time-based races.
WikiPaths Wikipaths is a defunct Greasemonkey Firefox extension allowing users to start a new game while directly browsing Wikipedia.
Wikispeedia is an implementation of the game with the additional research purpose of using the gathered data in an artificial intelligence program that automatically learns commonsense knowledge. Frozen in a 2007 version of Wikipedia.
Wiki Game - An Android version for Wiki Game.
WikiRacer.io – Race your friends in a unique version of this classic game