Iris

Iris is a two player abstract strategy game that is played on a "hexhex" board (a hexagonal shaped board made with hexagonal cells). An Iris board has rainbow colored perimeter cells and gray interior cells. Boards of sizes 5-8 cells per side are recommended. (Size 5 is recommended for beginners.) Player 1 plays with black stones and Player 2 plays with white stones.

On the very first turn, Player 1 plays a SINGLE black stone to any gray cell. Thereafter, starting with Player 2 on his/her first turn, each player plays TWO stones per turn, subject to the following restrictions:

1) If the first stone of a turn is played on a colored perimeter cell, then the second stone MUST be played on the corresponding same-colored cell on the opposite side of the hexhex board. (In the case of a corner cell, the corresponding same-colored cell is the opposite corner cell.)

2) If the first stone of a turn is played on a gray interior cell, then the second stone MUST be played on any empty non-adjacent gray cell. (If all remaining empty gray cells are adjacent to the first stone, then the second stone is forfeited.)

When the board is full or when both players consecutively pass, the game ends and players score their groups of stones. A group’s score is equal to the number of colored cells that it occupies. The player with the highest scoring group wins. If scores are tied, then players ignore their highest scoring group, and compare the highest scoring of their remaining groups. If still tied, then players compare their next highest scoring groups, etc., until the tie is broken. (Despite there being an even number of colored cells, for subtle reasons having to do with board geometry, it turns out that draws are impossible.)

(A note on the game's name: "Iris" was the Greek goddess of the rainbow.)

Honors

• Iris was a finalist in the Best Combinatorial 2-Player Game Contest of 2019

-description from designer