Wikipedia speedrun: race from one article to another.

How to play

The rules of a Wikipedia speedrun.

1. Press Start on Wikipedia. The start article opens in a new tab and the clock starts here.
2. Click links inside the article text to move from page to page. No search box, no typing addresses and no editing the URL.
3. When you land on the target article, come back to this tab and press I reached the target.
4. Add your number of clicks if you counted them, then copy your result to challenge friends on the same pair.

Players agree on the finer points among themselves. Common house rules: the back button is allowed or banned, find-in-page (Ctrl+F) is allowed or banned, and the winner is either the fastest time or the fewest clicks.

Strategy

How to win a wiki race.

• Get to a hub first. Countries, big cities, wars, centuries and broad subjects such as Science or Music link to thousands of pages. From an obscure start, head for the nearest country or year.
• Work backwards. Before you start, ask what the target’s article would link from: a person links from their country and field, a species from its family, a battle from its war.
• Use the infobox and the end of the article. Infoboxes link to countries, dates and categories, and the navigation boxes at the bottom of many articles list closely related pages.
• Don’t read, scan. Look for blue links that move you toward the target’s subject area and ignore the rest.

Variants

Other ways to race Wikipedia.

• Fewest clicks. Time doesn’t matter; the shortest path wins. Six degrees of Wikipedia is the idea that almost any two articles are only a few clicks apart.
• Getting to Philosophy. Click the first link in the main text of each article, outside parentheses, and see how long it takes to reach the Philosophy article. It usually gets there.
• Head to head. Two players, same pair, same moment. Use today’s daily challenge so everyone races the same route.
• Hard mode. Start from any article in Wikipedia, often a tiny village or a forgotten album, and find your way out.

Wikiracing has its own Wikipedia article, and researchers have used the game to study how people navigate information networks.