Rio Grande Games Yinsh

There are several reasons why Yinsh is my all time favorite abstract strategy game: 1. Setup takes less than 5 seconds. 2. No luck is involved. Its all about skill. 3. It incorporates one of the best catch-up mechanisms I have ever seen. Your goal is to remove 3 of your rings, but each ring you remove makes you weaker. Just compare that to chess and other similar games where as soon as a player has a clear advantage, that player is almost certain to win. 4. There are very few rules and the game is extremely simple to learn. 5. Its a super dynamic game. The higher the number of pieces on the board, the greater the tension and the potential for game-changing moves. Very highly recommended!

This is a very simple game, but contains depth. High replayability and the game mechanics put both players on the same playing field.

This game has a great build quality of bakelite & metal for the pieces, and a standard cardboard game board. The box is oversized for its contents, but that means you could possibly store other Gipf games like Zertz in this. Also, the pieces and board are reusable for other games, such as Backgammon, Checkers, & Gipf, so that is a nice bonus (though you will need the right boards for Backgammon and Checkers, but the Yinsh board is big enough to play Gipf without any modification). Gameplay is easy to understand but there is a lot of depth that is easy to miss the first time around. Your rings are critical for blocking and offense, and in the former case could become pinned. Adjacent rings or those aligned in the same row are considerably weaker, and if you have your rings clumped together, you are in a weak position. Ideally, you want to build your rows of markers in such a way that is is impossible or exceedingly difficult for your opponent to convert them. This game, unlike Othello/Reversi, allows for a much more offensive play, but the consequence is that as you progress, you get weaker with less options to place pieces. Gameplay can quickly pivot, with the person with a winning setup suddenly usurped by the underdog that converted the enemy pieces into their own. You will commonly find yourself having to possibly break up your own lines, or create forks in order to defend against the opponent and build out your longer term strategy. The nature of the game does make it harder to predict many moves ahead, as the board can look so different so quickly. This makes it easier for beginners to compete with more experience players, which I think is a plus when introducing the game to new players. Unfortunately, this game is commonly hard to find in the US, and scalpers sell the game for over $100, When the game has a MSRP of about $35. Fortunately, the German Amazon, Amazon.de, is able to ship this game to the states, for a total cost of around $30-35, which is totally worth it IMHO, as you are buying from a trusted seller a a close to market price. This is definitely the first game of the Gipf series I would start with, both for the aesthetics and the gameplay.

Im not a board games expert but I played this game once and fell in love with it. It is simple, challenging and fun to play. Not easy to find one for sale where I live, so I believe it is rare. But it doesnt need to be rare to be good. This game totally rocks and should be played by everyone who enjoys strategy games!

Really fun game! Kinda like checkers but strategic like chess! Easy to learn and play

You know. . . I wasnt sure I would like it. The reviews convinced me to make the plunge. It was easy to learn and challenging to master. Great game.

A challenging & quick abstract- probably one of the best. I enjoy Chess, Go, & a number of the GIPF games, but Yinsh is probably one of the easiest to get people to play. Good fun!

This is a great strategical game. It is very simple to learn or teach but very complicated to master.

Im a fan of Go, so this seemed like a great game to try it. It totally is! There is a lot of reply value, and I still dont understand the best strategy. This is complex enough to make you think, but quick enough to play w/someone new and not thoroughly bore them w/hard thinking involved in Go.

This is an excellent game. As with most games the more you play the better you get. This game becomes more complex each time you play with a chess like strategy system but not so complex that playing with a young gamer is impossible. Another reiviewer wrote something like this is my wife and Is just one more game game. Well I couldnt agree more. Its not overly long so you can get in a 3 round set before bed. I have since purchased several for gifts because we enjoyed it so much.