Skift

A Game of Strategic Shifts and Control

• Skift is an abstract strategy for two players, ages 8 and up. Average playing time is 10 to 15 minutes.  
• Eliminate your opponent’s pieces by shifting your own pieces and the board itself. The first player to cause their opponent to lose all of their kings or all of their pawns wins the game.

Starting the Game

• The game board consists of 9 square tiles, with each tile each divided into 4 quadrants.
• Game pieces include 2 kings and 6 pawns per player.
• Play begins with the 9 tiles arranged into a 3×3 grid to form the full board and the pieces arranged in a checkerboard pattern around the center (see illustration).

Gameplay

• Assign a color to each player and randomly determine who goes first.  Players then alternate turns. 
• On your turn, you may make either one piece move or one tile move.

Piece Moves

• A piece move involves moving one of your pieces (pawn or king) one quadrant in any direction (orthogonally or diagonally), pushing along any pieces that lie in the way.
• Pieces may be pushed from one quadrant to another within a tile or across tiles.  Pieces may also be pushed off the board.
• All pieces (kings and pawns) move and push in the same way, but only kings allow you to control tiles, as explained below.

In the illustration below, white starts the game by moving a king downward.

Following that opening move, the board position looks like this.

Tile Moves

• A tile move involves moving any tile that you control orthogonally (not diagonally), one tile length in any direction, pushing along any tiles that lie in the way.
• Any pieces that occupy a moved tile simply go along for the ride, retaining their positions on the tile as it is moved.
• You control a tile if you have more kings occupying its quadrants than your opponent.  If the count is tied, neither player controls the tile.

In the below illustration, blue controls the bottom central tile, and may therefore move that tile to the right.

Following that move, the board position looks like this.

Movement Restrictions

• If your opponent’s last move was a piece move, you may not make a piece move that returns any piece to the exact position it occupied immediately before your opponent’s last move.  
• Similarly, if your opponent’s last move was a tile move, you may not make a tile move that returns any tile to the exact position it occupied immediately before your opponent’s last move.

Removing Pieces from the Board

• Push-Off Removal: Any piece that is pushed off the edge of the board is removed from the game.
• Piece Splintering: If a move causes the pieces to form two or more isolated groups (not connected orthogonally or diagonally), the largest group remains, and all smaller groups are removed. If groups are equal in size, the player who caused the splinter chooses which group remains.
• Tile Splintering: If a move causes the tiles to form two or more isolated groups (not connected orthogonally or diagonally), the largest connected group of tiles remains, and all other tiles are removed. Ties are resolved as noted above; the acting player chooses which group remains.

In this illustration, if white moves the indicated pawn upwards, the pieces below it would be splintered into a separate, smaller, group from the rest of the pieces, and would therefore be removed from the board.

Winning the Game

• A player wins if their opponent has no kings or no pawns remaining on the board.

Tiebreaker Conditions

• If both players lose all kings or all pawns on the same turn, the player with more pieces remaining on the board wins.  If both players have the same number of pieces, the game ends in a draw.