The player’s guide
How to play Kess.
Learn the movement, trapping, and winning rules in minutes. Blue starts. Then it’s anyone’s game.
Before the first turn
Set up the battle.
Two players choose red or blue. Each player begins with ten pieces. Arrange your pieces along your starting rows, choose blue to move first, and you’re ready.
Prefer to practice alone? Kess also supports solo play.
The complete rules
Five moves.
Three sides.
Two pieces left.
That’s the heart of Kess. The detail is in how you use your turn.
Take five moves
On your turn, you have five moves to divide among your pieces however you choose. Move one piece five spaces, move five pieces one space each, or use another combination.
Stay on the grid
Pieces move up, down, left, or right—never diagonally.
Surround on three sides
To capture, use your own pieces to surround an opponent’s piece on any three sides. The surrounding pieces can form an L-shape or a straight arrangement.
Remove the captured piece
When you complete the encirclement during your turn, remove the surrounded opposing piece from the board.
Reduce your opponent to two
Keep capturing until your opponent has only two pieces remaining. You win.
Capture example
See the trap take shape.
In this example, the red piece is surrounded on three sides by blue pieces. Completing this formation during blue’s turn captures the red piece.
Only orthogonal moves count. Plan your five moves as one sequence, and watch both sides of the board.
Full video walkthrough
Watch a game come to life.
Your turn
Open the box.
Start plotting.
You know the moves. Now put them together, set your first trap, and discover why one round rarely feels like enough.
Get the Kess board game