Assemble the 37 circular spaces to form the hexagonal board on which you will place the "checkers": white, gray, and black marbles. Turns consist of either: (1) adding a marble to a space, followed by removing a vacant space from the board's edge; or (2) compulsorily capturing any marble by jumping it with another. Optionally, you may capture marbles by isolating a part of the board filled with them. Win by capturing three white, four gray, five black, or two of each color. Last year's Best Abstract Strategy game is still winning our admiration.

Many games require building a board for play, but Zèrtz also requires you to slowly dismantle one. You begin by assembling a hexagonal board from the 37 circular pieces. On your turn, you make either a two-step move or a capture. The two-step move begins by adding any marble to the board from a common supply, then removing an empty board piece from the edge. You must capture marbles if possible, by jumping them with another marble; optionally, you may capture marbles by isolating a portion of the board that is filled with marbles. You win by obtaining either three white, four gray, or five black marbles, or by acquiring two marbles of each of the three colors. Our best abstract strategy game of the year affords exceptional opportunities for strategic exploration and discovery.

Zertz is a fantastic game in the Gipf series. There is nothing quite like it, and I've played many an abstract game. The "shrinking game board" mechanism is simply brilliant, guaranteeing that the game has a definitive "end" and will not meander around a stalemate situation like other games.

People complain that it feels too much like a "puzzle" that one needs to solve in order to win. I have to disagree. True, there are four possible ways to win, but just pick one and if doesn't work out, then change the strategy. That's the beauty of Zertz, the game keeps itself interesting FOR you.

The rules are very few and extremely simple to grasp. I won't go into detail about them here, but there's, like, one rule for "playing" a marble and one rule for "capturing" a marble(s). That's it. And yet, so complex and full of possibilities.

Another big plus in my book, which hasn't gotten its due recognition - is its portability. Because the components (which are first-class, I might add) consist of nothing more than rings and marbles, all one has to do is put them in a couple of zip-lock bags and take them anywhere. Zertz is also a "traveling" game. Great!

It's a good coffee table game, and if you take it out, people will invariably ask about it because it looks so unique and interesting that it entices people to inquire about the game.

Everyone I've shown and taught this game to has said how much they enjoy playing it.

I cannot give a big enough recommendation to Zertz, and the whole Gipf Project, for that matter.

Zertz is a fantastic game in the Gipf series. There is nothing quite like it, and I've played many an abstract game. The "shrinking game board" mechanism is simply brilliant, guaranteeing that the game has a definitive "end" and will not meander around a stalemate situation like other games.

People complain that it feels too much like a "puzzle" that one needs to solve in order to win. I have to disagree. True, there are four possible ways to win, but just pick one and if doesn't work out, then change the strategy. That's the beauty of Zertz, the game keeps it interesting FOR you.

The rules are very few and extremely simple to grasp. I won't go into detail about them here, but there's, like, one rule for "playing" a marble and one rule for "capturing" a marble(s). That's it. And yet, so complex and full of possibilities.

Another big plus in my book, which hasn't gotten its due recognition - is its portability. Because the components (which are first-class, I might add) consist of nothing more than rings and marbles, all one has to do is put them in a couple of zip-lock bags and take them anywhere. Zertz is also a "traveling" game. Great!

It's a good coffee table game, and if you take it out, people will invariably ask about it because it looks so unique and interesting that it entices people to inquire about the game.

Everyone I've shown and taught this game to has said how much they enjoy playing it.

I cannot give a big enough recommendation to Zertz, and the whole Gipf Project, for that matter.

I've recently acquired all the GIPF games and like them all, and though in a 'you can only have one on your desert island' case I'd probably take DVONN rather than ZERTZ that should in no way be taken as saying that ZERTZ is a poor relation.

It's related to Draughts/Checkers in a way, in that sacrifices usually have to be made to get ahead and pieces are taken by jumping over to an empty space behind (and possibly carrying on over subsequent pieces), but like Mancala games in the way that the playing pieces don't belong to any either player.

But it has aspects all of its own too. Either player can use the whole board (unlike Mancala) so given piece neutrality it can be quite tricky to launch killer strategies as all the options are open to both players. Like DVONN, the usable board area shrinks during play (by actually removing the rings that make it up) and this provides a useful limiting factor on the game time and also enables distinct strategy options as part of the mechanism. Very neat!

Fianlly, the pieces are of very high quality and an attractive design. Good pieces make a good game even better, and that's the case here. Also the case that the way the 'board' is made up of separate rings means that the game can be decanted into a bag and made very portable.

Unless you don't really like abstracts, or want something that allows more than two players, there really isn't much not to like here.