GIPF

GIPF is an abstract strategy board game by Kris Burm, the first of the six games in his so-called GIPF Project. Taking consecutive turns, players push tokens (one player taking black, the other white) from the edge of the tri-gridded, hexagonal board, with pieces already in play pushed in front of the new placements rather than allowing more than one piece on any space. The game is lost if a player has no more tokens to play, and since each start... more

GIPF is an abstract strategy board game by Kris Burm, the first of the six games in his so-called GIPF Project. Taking consecutive turns, players push tokens (one player taking black, the other white) from the edge of the tri-gridded, hexagonal board, with pieces already in play pushed in front of the new placements rather than allowing more than one piece on any space. The game is lost if a player has no more tokens to play, and since each starts with a set number it is clearly necessary to recycle pieces already positioned to keep playing. This is achieved by contriving to line up four pieces of the same colour in a row on the board, at which point those tokens are returned to their owner and any opposing tokens extending from the line of four are captured. Because a single player will often move several pieces and change numerous on-board relationships it is remarkably difficult to predict the state of the board more than one turn ahead, despite GIPF being a game of perfect... less