Gygès OnlineAbout Gygès
Gygès is an abstract board game for two players, designed by Claude Leroy. The twelve pieces belong to nobody: on your turn you move one from the row nearest you, and the first player to move a piece into the goal on the far side wins.
The game takes its name from the legend of King Gygès and his ring of invisibility. Two players face each other across the board, each guarding a goal at their end, and share twelve neutral pieces of three heights. Nothing is captured: you win by finding a way through to the goal on the far side.
Each player begins by setting six pieces — two each with one, two and three rings — on their home row. On your turn you move one of the pieces nearest you, exactly as many spaces as it has rings, never through another piece and never along the same step twice. Land on another piece and you may jump again with its rings, chaining leaps across the board, or bump it to an empty space and take its place.
Because every piece is neutral, one you advance deep into the board may be your opponent's to use on their very next turn. The game ends the moment a move finishes in the opponent's goal, so it rewards careful planning, calculated risks, and the sudden breakthrough a well-built run of jumps can make.
Gygès won the 1985 Concours International de Créateurs de Jeux de Société.
Basic rules
A six-by-six board with a goal at each end, and twelve pieces of one, two or three rings. The rings are how far a piece moves.
Rings are distance
A piece moves exactly as many spaces as it has rings, along rows and columns, turning if it likes, never through another piece.
Land on a piece: jump or bump
End on another piece and you may jump again with its rings — a run of jumps can cross the whole board — or bump it to an empty space and take its place.
Nobody owns the pieces
You move a piece from the row nearest you that has any. Every piece you send forward may be your opponent's to move next.
First into the goal wins
The goal is the space past the far row. Stepping into it is one space of the count, and the count must end there exactly.
Questions
- Is it free?
- Yes, all of it: the computer opponents, games against people, the puzzles and the rules. There is nothing to buy.
- Do I need an account?
- To play, yes — a game needs to know whose turn it is. An account is a username and a password, and an email so the site can tell you when it is your move. Without one you can still read the rules, watch any game and try today's puzzle.
- How long does a game take?
- Against the computer, as long as you like: it answers at once. Against a person, each move has a time limit the host picks, three days unless they choose otherwise, so a game runs over days or weeks, like chess by post.
- Can I play on my phone?
- Yes. The site works in any modern browser, and pieces move by dragging or by tapping.