The Story
Where it came from, and why it turned out this way.
DesignPeter Burley · United Kingdom, 2008 · published by Burley Games
One color feedback loop
Kamisado was released by the British designer Peter Burley in 2008. Its entire mechanism is a single sentence: the color of the square you land on determines which tower your opponent must move next. The first move is the only free choice; every move after it is dictated by the one before. This is forced-chain design taken to its limit — for the whole game you almost never choose which piece to move, only which piece your opponent has to move.
The board's coloring is not decoration
The fixed eight-color pattern on the 8×8 board looks like abstract ornament but is in fact the substance of the rules. Every square's color determines your opponent's next move, so "where do I go" and "what do I hand over" are the same decision. Before each move you must calculate two things at once: how much this advances my own plan, and what the tower I am about to name can then do. Nearly all the difference in playing strength shows up in the second question.
Zero-steps and deadlock
If the named tower cannot move at all, the turn passes as a zero-step and the color continues to be handed along. In extreme cases both sides can enter a permanent loop where nothing ever really moves — that is deadlock. Kamisado's adjudication is distinctive: the last player who actually moved a tower at least one square before the deadlock formed is the loser. So whoever performed the final zero-step is not necessarily the one who loses; you have to trace back.
Simple to state, hard to calculate
Towers cannot capture, push, or swap, and may only travel straight or diagonally toward the opponent. The rules are simple enough for a child to start immediately, but because every move names your opponent's next move, a forced chain can run very long. Strong players are effectively calculating a sequence of "I force you to move this one, you can only land on these squares, therefore the tower named for me next is that one." It gets the longest calculation out of the fewest rules.
- Every tower starts on the matching color square of its own home row, so the correspondence between the eight colors is perfectly symmetric at the opening.
- Two towers touching only at a corner do not seal the diagonal between them — the rules check actual occupied squares one at a time.
- This page implements the Single Round game and does not include the Sumo scoring and multi-round match structure added later.
Complete Rules
Start with what a turn allows and how the game is won.
- Board
- 8 × 8 squares in a fixed eight-color pattern
- Towers
- Eight per side, one identity of each color
- Ruleset
- Single Round; Black opens; no Sumo rules
- Black and Gold each own eight towers: Brown, Green, Red, Yellow, Pink, Purple, Blue, and Orange. In the initial round, every tower starts on the matching square of its owner's home row, and Black is the Challenger who moves first.
- Only the opening move offers a free tower choice. Black may open with any tower. Thereafter, a player must move the tower whose identity matches the color of the opponent's previous landing square.
- A tower moves toward the opponent, traveling any number of empty squares straight forward, diagonally forward-left, or diagonally forward-right along one line.
- A tower cannot move sideways or backward, jump any occupied square, or land on an occupied square. Two towers touching only corner-to-corner do not block a diagonal line between their squares.
- If the required tower has at least one legal destination, it must move by at least one square. The player may neither pass voluntarily nor substitute a different tower.
- If all three forward directions of the required tower are blocked, the tower is treated as making a zero-length move on its current square. The board stays unchanged, the opponent moves next, and that square's color—not the tower's own identity—selects the opponent's tower.
- Blocked zero-length moves may form a longer chain. One blocked turn, or several in succession, does not by itself make either player lose.
- A deadlock occurs when the blocked color-transfer sequence repeats permanently and no tower can actually move again. The last player who moved a tower a positive distance loses for causing the deadlock; that player is not necessarily the last one who passed.
- A player wins immediately when any of their towers lands on any empty square of the opponent's home row. Towers are never captured, pushed, exchanged, or stacked in this ruleset.
- This implementation is the Single Round base game only. It excludes Sumo rings and promotion, Oshi pushes, between-round rearrangement, and the 3/7/15-point match formats.
Your First Game
Use this order of thought to get through a complete game quickly.
- On the opening move, inspect the landing color before maximizing distance. A long advance that activates the opponent's best tower may be worse than a short move to an awkward color.
- Highlighted source towers are the complete legal source set: usually all eight on the opening turn and one required tower afterward. Read a tower's top color and geometric mark rather than relying only on light or dark material.
- After selecting a tower, trace its three forward rays. The nearest occupied square stops every destination behind it, but corner-touching towers do not close the diagonal gap.
- Before committing, locate the opponent's tower matching the destination color and examine which colors that tower can reach. This reveals at least the next link of the feedback chain.
- Near a home row, defend diagonal lanes as carefully as the straight lane. A tower may cross several empty squares and win immediately.
Practical Strategy
Move from knowing the rules to playing with a plan.
- Treat a landing color as a constrained option you give the opponent. Favor squares that advance your tower while activating an edge tower, blocked tower, or otherwise poor responder.
- Central towers often have more long-range choices but can be selected frequently. Edge towers have fewer choices and can create calculable color cycles; compare both effects in the next feedback layer.
- A blockade is more than three occupied forward squares. Determine what color the blocked tower passes onward, because an incomplete blocked chain may give the opponent consecutive useful actions.
- Before creating a deadlock, remember who made the last positive-length move. If it was you, a later exchange of zero-length turns still assigns the loss to you.
- Maintain threats in several tower colors. When multiple identities can win in one move, more of the opponent's landing colors become dangerous.
- Defend by controlling the colors an advanced enemy tower can land on, not only by occupying its present lane. The feedback rule can force that tower away from its best route.
Winning and Special Rules
Details that are easy to miss but can change the result.
- Some physical editions provide a reverse board with character marks for color assistance. This implementation uses shared text-free components and eight original geometric marks while preserving the same color IDs.
- A forced pass is an automatic, complete rule action and is not exposed as a voluntary Pass button. Undo treats it as one complete turn.
- Deadlock detection repeats the side-to-move and required-color state while the board remains unchanged through zero-length actions; ordinary forward play is not converted into a draw claim.
- Single Round adds no move limit, repetition draw, or scoring phase. Its only endings are reaching the opponent's home row and deadlock.
Common Mistakes
The traps new players fall into most often.
- Using the moved tower's identity as the next color. The destination square selects the next tower; on a blocked turn, the current square does so.
- Passing or switching towers when the required tower still has one legal destination. Zero-length movement is automatic only when all three forward directions are blocked.
- Moving sideways, backward, or through another tower. Unlimited range applies only to the three forward lines, and every crossed square must be empty.
- Declaring the current passer the loser as soon as both sides are blocked. The sequence must be permanently repeating, and the loser is the last player who actually moved.
- Importing promotion, pushes, or backward Sumo movement from multi-round matches into this Single Round ruleset.