Shobu Board Game

Shobu is an elegant abstract strategy game for two players. The game is won when one player manages to push all of the other player's stones off of one of the four boards.

At the start of the game players have four stones of their colour on each of the four boards. They have two home boards, one light and one dark, with the rope places separating their home boards from those of the other player.

Each turn of the game has two parts. A passive move and an active move. The passive move takes place on one of the player's homeboards. In this move a player can move one of their stones up to two spaces in any direction. You cannot push a stone during this move. A stone cannot jump over another one so it must be unblocked in the direction of movement.

Then, during the active move the player moves one of their stones on a board of the opposite colour to that the passive move was played on. The stone moved during the active move must move exactly the same way as the stone in the passive move.

It is only during the active move that players can push opponent's pieces off of the board. Once you have knocked all of your opponent's pieces off of one board you win the game.

Shobu is a simple game to begin to play, but gets more complex the more you play it as you understand the breadth of options available. Although new by abstract strategy game standards it has a classic, timeless look and feel.