GIPF (game)

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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 play 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 information. Play tends to be highly fluid and there is no real concept of long term territorial or spatial development.

The game can be expanded with extra pieces (available separately) called Potentials which allow different forms of move to be made. These are named for the other games in the GIPF project, though the other games are not actually necessary in order to utilise the Potentials named after them.

GIPF and its sibling games have had a good critical reception and appear to have fared commercially better than most newly devised abstract games of skill.