From Erik Arneson,
Your Guide to Board / Card Games.
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Summary

Yin-Yang is a two player game of claiming territory. It is played on a checkered board with dark and light stones. The board starts with some stones on it, then players take turns moving and adding stones until no more moves are possible.

Goal

Player One tries to have stones on squares of matching color (dark on dark or light on light), and Player Two tries to have stones on squares of contrasting color (dark on light or light on dark).

Setup

Use a 6 x 6 checkered board. Put four stones, two dark and two light, in the center four squares, placing each stone on a contrasting square. See Setup Diagram.

Play

Players take turns moving and placing stones on the board. Each turn, a player picks any one stone that can be moved and moves it according to these rules:

• A stone is moved a number of squares equal to the number of stones that share its color in the eight squares that are horizontally, vertically, and diagonally adjacent to it (see Diagram 1).
• A stone can only be moved horizontally or vertically in a straight line, and exactly that number of squares. Each square it passes through, as well as the destination square, must be empty. If the stone's full movement is blocked by another stone or the edge of the board, it cannot be moved in that direction (see Diagram 2).
• After moving a stone, the player puts a stone of the opposite color in the square in which the moving stone started (see Diagram 3).

That player's turn then ends and the other player begins a new turn (see Diagram 4). Players continue taking turns until there are no stones that can be moved, at which point the game ends.

Scoring

At the end of the game, count up each player's score. Player One scores one point for each stone that is on a square of the same color, and Player Two gets one point for each stone that is on a square of the opposite color. No one gets points for unoccupied squares. An easy way to count is for one player collect their stones from the board as they score them, and then the other player scores for all the remaining stones.

The player with the higher score wins the game. If scores are tied, Player Two wins the game.

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ORIGIN

in center four squares
of checkered six by six board
place stones dark and light

each dark and light stone
on contrasting shaded square
the game is ready

TRANSFORMATION

count like-shaded stones
in eight neighboring spaces
stones move that distance

move in a straight line
unblocked by edges or stones
up down left or right

in its starting square
place an opposite shade stone
after a stone moves

moving any stone
til no legal moves remain
players take turns

COMPLETION

first player scores points
for stones on matching shade squares
other scores contrasts