Race to the middle of the board by moving your tiles like chess pieces. With timely moves, you can place your opponent in a state of DURESS!

Duress is a two-player strategic board game. It is intended for adults and children ages 8 and up.

Each player has 16 tiles with different letters (A through P). These same tiles are arranged as Goal Pieces in the middle of the board. The Goal Pieces are arranged symmetrically, equidistant from the two players. Once a layout is selected, the Goal Pieces are arranged in a random order. The two players may also decide to take turns selecting the placement of the individual tiles, which adds strategy to the game.

There are also Movement Pieces corresponding to chess pieces. In a classic game of Duress, there are 16 Movement Pieces: 8 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 1 queen, and 1 king.

Once the Goal Pieces are arranged, the two players take turns. In a single turn, the player:

a) Selects a Movement Piece at random.

b) Selects one of the tiles to move.

c) Moves the selected tile to a new location based on the Movement Piece. Other tiles can block the movements of the pieces, creating opportunities for strategic play.

Players score points by landing their pieces on the corresponding Goal Pieces before the opponent can get there. So, the two A tiles are racing to reach the A in the Goal Pieces. The same goes for each letter.

A player wins the game by scoring a majority of the points.

There are many opportunities to change the structure of the game:

a) Each game randomizes the order of the Goal Pieces, creating a different strategic challenge for the players.

b) Players can take turns selecting the order of the Goal Pieces, creating additional strategy. When one player goes first in the selection, and the other goes first in moving pieces, the potential for a first player's bias can be mitigated.

c) The players may create alternative layouts for the board.

d) As an alternative, players may select and hold 3 pieces. This allows for planning moves in advance. With each turn, the player will select one of the three movement pieces, move a tile, return this piece to the bag, and randomly select a new one.

With many potential variations, no two games of Duress are exactly alike.

Games