GygèsAn abstract game for two players. Nobody owns the pieces — you may only move a piece in the row nearest to you, whoever put it there.
Move a piece into your opponent's goal — the single space beyond their back row. The first player to do it wins, and that is the only way to win at the board.
There is no capturing in Gygès, and no material to count. Every piece stays on the board all game.
You may move any piece in your active line: the row nearest you that still contains pieces. Not your pieces — the pieces. Nobody owns them, so the same piece may be moved by you this turn and by your opponent later.
Empty your nearest row and the line falls back to the next one, which changes what you may touch — and what they may.
A piece moves exactly as many spaces as it has rings — one, two or three. Not up to that many: exactly that many.
Movement is orthogonal, it may turn corners, and it may never revisit a space it has already crossed during the same move.
If a piece lands on another piece part-way through its move, it continues using that piece's ring count instead of its own. This can chain several times in one move.
It is the rule that makes the game: a one-ring piece can cross the whole board if the pieces in its way are generous, and the position you leave behind decides what your opponent can reach.
If a piece finishes its movement on an occupied space, it may instead displace the piece standing there, sending it to any empty space on the board.
Anywhere at all — which makes it a way of rearranging your opponent's half of the board as much as your own. Keeping a three-ring piece away from their active line is often worth more than advancing.
The rules above are enforced. The server checks every move and rejects anything the rules do not allow, so you cannot make an illegal move by accident — and neither can your opponent.
While you drag a piece, the squares it can legally reach are marked. That is a convenience; the server checks the move again when you let go, and it is the server that decides.
Every game begins from an empty board: each player arranges their own back row before play starts, so the first decision of the game is the shape of your own line.