YINSH In Play

''YINSH'' is an abstract strategy board game by game designer Kris Burm. It is the fifth game to be released in the ''GIPF'' Project. At the time of its release in 2003, Burm stated that he intended it to be considered as the sixth and last game of the project, and that the game which he had not yet released, ''PÜNCT'', would be logically the fifth game. However, the series was later expanded to seven games with the release of LYNGK.

Gameplay consists of moving rings to flip Reversi-like discs.

Rules

Equipment

''YINSH'' is played on a board shaped like a truncated six-pointed star with a triangular grid and 85 spaces (referring to the nodes or intersections), including those along the perimeter. The board is oriented so the lines with the letter labels run between the two players. Each space in the game is available for placement of ''rings'' and ''markers''

The game pieces are:
* 5 black and 5 white ''rings''
* 51 reversible round disc ''markers'' which are black on one side and white on the other, similar to Reversi pieces

The ''rings'' are given to the players, while the ''markers'' are accessible to both as a common pool.

Object

The object of the game is to remove three of one's own ''rings'' from the game. Since this is the goal of the game, getting closer to winning necessitates weakening oneself, which considerably complicates strategy as a move which brings one closer to winning the game may end up being a very poor move.

Gameplay

The game starts with an empty board, and proceeds in two phases, ''placement'' followed by ''movement''.

Placement

During the first phase the players, take turns placing one of their ''rings'' on the board on any unoccupied space, beginning with white. Once both players each have placed all five of their ''rings'', this phase is over.

Movement

The second phase involves forming ''lines'', defined as five adjacent ''markers'' in a straight line with a single color. Once a ''line'' is formed in one player's color (on either player's turn), that player removes the five ''markers'', and also one of their ''rings''. Once a player has removed three of their ''rings'', they win the game.

A turn consists of the following:

#The player chooses one of their own ''rings'' to move.
#The player places a ''marker'', with their own color face-up, in the middle of that ''ring'' on the space it occupies.
#The player then moves the ''ring'' to another unoccupied space, along a straight line from the originating node. The ''marker'' never moves. In general, there are six directions from any node, with exceptions along the perimeter of the game board.

When moving a ring, the following rules apply:

*The moving ''ring'' may not move over other ''rings''.
*The moving ''ring'' may pass over any number of ''markers'' in a row. If it does so, it must stop on the blank space immediately following the last ''marker'' moved over.
**All ''markers'' moved over like this are flipped over after moving the ''ring'', reversing their color.
*A moving ''ring'' may not end on a space already occupied by a ''marker''.

It is possible, and not uncommon, to make a move which results in the opposing player having a line of five ''markers'' in a row. When more than one line is made in the same turn, the player who just moved resolves their own lines (if any) first, and then the other player resolves their lines (if any) before making his next move. Lines are resolved one at a time, so if a single ''marker'' is shared by two lines, only one of those lines may be resolved (but the player chooses which).

File:YINSH board (potential moves).svg, (A) Potential moves for the black ''ring'' at E4 are shown with broken ''rings''. Note that K10 is not a possible move, as J9 is the first open space after passing over existing ''markers''; similarly, E1 is not possible. Also, C2 and A4 are blocked by ''rings''.
File:YINSH board (move and flip).svg, (B) Black has decided on the move , which results in the placement of a black ''marker'' at E4 and the reversal of the colors of the five ''markers'' from E5–E9.

If all of the ''markers'' are placed on the board before either player has won, the game ends, with the winner being the player who has removed more ''rings''. If both players have removed the same number of ''rings'' at this point, the game ends in a draw.

Video games

No official online versions of Yinsh exist, but there are number of unofficial implementations. Notably the web-based biskai.de an
Boardspace.net
On mobile, there is Shyring for iOS, published in December 2014.

References

External links

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Web YINSH

code

{{Gipf project

Board games introduced in 2003
Abstract strategy games
Mensa Select winners
Kris Burm games