Rio Grande Games Yinsh

Great game!

By far the most played game that we have. We have over 60 board games and this one has been the one played the most. We like to play it on teams of 2v2 just like Sequence. Epic game!

This has quickly become a favorite go to game for me and my wife. Kind of like a cross between connect four and chess but actually fun. This game can be quite difficult to master and sometimes just when you think youve built a decent strategy, you realize that your partner has trumped it with their own! Very simple to learn (watch a youtube video review).

Just played my first game, this is one of my favorites. Very complex, very abstract.

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.

Bought this for my 11 year old granddaughter who loves board games. She has played it with her dad and says she really likes it. I’m happy.

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.

Fantastic game, which is easy to learn, but difficult to master.

First game I bought in this game series. Super easy to learn but a great challenge to play. Lots of fun and keeps the mind woking!

But im not good at it!