Quess

Quess is a game about small moves and big choices. Capture your opponent's pieces or their territory to win. In this description is the full outline of how to play Quess In order to play, you will need...

Materials

• 1 board (6x6 grid, starting from the top left rows are (optionally) labelled A-F and columns are numbered 1-6)
• 3 "light" triangle pieces
• 2 "light" circle pieces
• 1 "light" square piece
• 3 "dark" triangle pieces
• 2 "dark" circle pieces
• 1 "dark" square piece
• (Speed variant) 1 Speed Chess clock

To Start

Set up the board and use your favourite way to determine who goes first.
To set up the board, position units as such:

Light setup - Square on F1, Circles on E1 & F2, Triangles on D1, E2, & F3
Dark Setup - Square on A6, Circles on A5 & B6, Triangles on A4, B5, & C6

These positions make up each player's "starting zone."

If you are playing with optional speed variant rules: set the starting time to your preferred ruleset. Suggested times minutes per player, 3 minutes per player, no time gained on your turn, and no delay to the clock once your turn begins.

To play

Each player takes turns. On your turn, you can move any 1 of your pieces. Triangles, Circles, and Squares each have their own movement choices. You can move a piece either to a legal unoccupied space or to a space occupied by the opposing player, so long as that piece has a different shape from your own piece. Moving to an occupied space removes the piece that was previously there from the game. A Triangle cannot remove a triangle, a circle cannot remove a circle, and a square cannot remove a square.

There are optional speed variant rules. They are highly recommended for the best play experience, as the game works best when you're under pressure and making mistakes! See italicized text for the speed variant rules.

Units move as such:

• Triangles can move in any cardinal direction by one space (left, right, up, down).
  
• Circles can move two spaces in any cardinal direction, then one perpendicular to their path, and can hop over other units so long as the space they're moving to is unoccupied (like a knight in Chess).
  
• Squares can move to any space in the cardinal directions, so long as there are no pieces between the Square and the selected space (like a rook in Chess).

If you are playing with optional speed variant rules: once you've made your move you hit the clock to signal it's the other player's turn.

Superko

You cannot make a move that would put the board in a state it's previously been in. For example, if I open with moving a triangle to an adjacent space, and my opponent moves a triangle to an adjacent space, then if I move the triangle I moved previously back to its starting position, my opponent would not be able to move their triangle back into their starting position, as that would put the board back to all pieces in starting positions.

This is to prevent loops, and while in theory sounds complicated, in practice only comes up when two players try to go back and forth making the same moves over and over to avoid putting themselves into a weaker position.

To win

You win if you achieve any of the following:

• You have two pieces in your opponent's starting zone at the end of your turn
• Your opponent can make no legal moves (no pieces, or remaining pieces on the board are trapped)
• If you are playing with optional speed variant rules: you win if your opponent runs out of time

Stalemate

If you aren't playing with optional speed variant rules then there are certain situations where neither player is capable of winning. This occurs when both players only have one unit remaining. With optional speed variant rules the player with more time remaining would win. Without optional speed variant rules the game is declared a draw.