渋 Spire

A game for the Shibumi object by Dieter Stein.

Material

• Shibumi set: 4 × 4 square board, white, black, and red balls

Rules

The board starts empty.

Starting a game of Spire.

Two players, White and Black, take turns placing a ball of their colour or a red ball either on an empty board hole or stacking on a 2 × 2 platform.

If a red ball is placed then the player must play another ball of their own colour in the same turn.

Placement

No single 2 × 2 square of ball locations may include more than 2 like-coloured balls:

No placement allowed on the marked spaces.

Playing on a platform is only possible if the colour to be played is not already used twice in the base:

Small pyramids may not include 3 balls of the same colour.

In other words: each and every small 5-ball pyramid may not include more than two balls of the same colour.

End of the game

Players must place a ball of their own colour. If there is no placement available (in the beginning of their turn or after a red ball was played) the current player loses the game immediately.

Otherwise, the player who played his own colour on top (the spire ball) wins the game.

An ideal game where a player wins by placing his last piece on the top.