Rin — A Territory Board Game

At a glance

Simple rules, deep strategy

Two players. Surround to capture. Most stones wins.

Place stones

Black opens with one stone, then players alternate placing two stones per turn.

Surround to capture

Wall off regions with your stones. Anything sealed inside becomes yours.

Most stones wins

The game ends when every intersection is filled. Whoever owns more stones wins.

Complete rules

The full picture

Goal

Two players, Black and White, play on the intersections of an even N×N grid — 16×16 standard, 12×12 for quick games, 8×8 for tutorials. When the board is full, the player with more stones wins.

Turns

Black begins by placing one stone. After that, players alternate turns, each placing two stones on empty intersections. If only one empty intersection remains, the current player fills it to end the game.

Example:

Black plays one stone (move 1), then each player places two stones per turn: 1-2-2-2…

III

Captures

After placing, check whether each empty point and each opposing stone can trace a path to the board edge — moving horizontally or vertically, without crossing the current player's stones. Any point or opposing stone with no such path is captured — it becomes the current player's stone.

Example:

White’s move 6 seals off two points. Black’s stone 1 and the empty intersection can’t reach the edge without crossing White’s wall, so both flip to White — bringing the count to 8–4 in White’s favor.

End of the game

The game ends when every intersection is filled. Whoever owns more stones wins; equal counts are a draw.