Enso

• Square board (6 × 6 spaces)
• 16 white and 16 black stones

Setup

Setup

All 32 stones are placed on the board as shown in Figure 1.

Play

Black moves first, then players alternate turns.

On your turn, you must move one of your own stones.

Connections and movement are possible in all eight directions—orthogonal and diagonal. Connections apply to immediately adjacent spaces and moves go in straight lines over any number of empty spaces.

The “connection state” of a stone determines its available moves:

• If a stone is connected to at least one enemy stone, it must capture a reachable enemy stone—that is, move to the enemy’s space and remove it from play. The captured stone does not have to be adjacent.

• If a stone is connected only to friendly stones, it must move either to an isolated space (surrounded only by empty spaces) or to a space adjacent to an enemy stone—no capture in this case.

• If a stone is not connected to another stone, it may not be moved.

The white stone (c1) is connected to an enemy stone (b2) and must capture. There are three possible moves for this stone.

The black stone (d3) is only connected to friendly stones. There are five moves possible adjacent to enemy stones and one move to isolation (f1).

Two stones (a1 and f3) are isolated and may not be moved.

End

An isolated (“enso”) stone with eight empty spaces around it wins the game immediately.

White wins with the enso stone (d3).

If both players have enso stones, the player who just moved wins.

A player who has no moves left loses the game.