''Focus'' is an
abstract strategy
Abstract strategy games admit a number of definitions which distinguish these from strategy games in general, mostly involving no or minimal narrative theme, outcomes determined only by player choice (with no randomness), and perfect information ...
board game
Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well.
Many board games feature a co ...
, designed by
Sid Sackson
Sid Sackson (February 4, 1920 in Chicago – November 6, 2002) was an American board game designer and collector, best known as the creator of the business game ''Acquire''.
Career
Sackson's most popular creation is probably the business game ''Ac ...
and first published in
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...
by
Kosmos. The game has been re-published many times since, sometimes under the titles ''Domination'' or ''Dominio''. ''Focus'' won the 1981
Spiel des Jahres
The Spiel des Jahres (, ''Game of the Year'') is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence ...
and
Essen Feather
The Essen Feather (german: Essener Feder) is an award for German-style board games, given at the Deutscher Spiele Preis ceremony at the ''Spiel'' game fair in Essen, Germany. The award is given to games with well-written rules, as it was felt t ...
awards. The game appears in Sackson's ''
A Gamut of Games
''A Gamut of Games'' is an innovative book of games written by Sid Sackson and first published in 1969. It contains rules for a large number of paper and pencil, card, and board games. Many of the games in the book had never before been publish ...
'' in the section ''New Battles on an Old Battlefield''.
Gameplay
![Focus 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Focus_01.svg)
Two to four players move stacks of one to five pieces around a
checkerboard with the three squares in each corner removed, thus forming a 6×6 board with 1×4 extensions on each side. Stacks may move as many spaces as there are pieces in the stack. Players may only move a stack if the topmost piece in the stack is one of their pieces. When a stack lands on another stack, the two stacks merge; if the new stack contains more than five pieces, then pieces are removed from the bottom to bring it down to five. If a player's own piece is removed, they are kept and may be placed on the board later in lieu of moving a stack. If an opponent's piece is removed, it is captured. The last player who is able to move a stack wins.
See also
* ''
Death Stacks
''Death Stacks'' is an abstract strategy board game for two players invented by Stephen Euin Cobb. ''Death Stacks'' can be classified as a variant of the game ''Focus'' by Sid Sackson, published in '' A Gamut of Games''.
The Annual ''Death Sta ...
''
References
*
External links
*
PDF Rules fo
''Domination'' Hasbro
Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...
's re-publication of the game.
*
{{Spiel des Jahres
Board games introduced in 1964
Abstract strategy games
Spiel des Jahres winners
Sid Sackson games
Kosmos (publisher) games