Pariah
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| Other names | Burj (Gondwana), Spiel (Concord) |
|---|---|
| Years active | c. 13th century to present (predecessors c. 900 years earlier) |
| Genres |
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| Players | 2 |
| Playing time | 10-20 minutes |
| Chance | None |
| Skills | Strategy, Tactics |
Pariah is a board game for two players, called white and black, each controlling various pariah pieces in their color, with the objective to trap the opponent's king piece. It is sometimes called burj or spiel depending on the continent. The rules of pariah, as they are known today in Yasteria, emerged in the 13th century, with general standardization in the 19th century.
Pariah is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on a checkered 16 square grid arranged in a 4x4 grid. At the start, each player has 3 pieces on the board: their player piece in a corner of the board (with their opponent's piece in the opposite corner), and two of their column pieces placed in front of their opponent. Black moves first, followed by white. The game is won by trapping the enemy king, i.e. leaving it with no squares to move toward. There are also a few ways in which a game can end in a draw.
Competitive pariah arose in the 19th century. Pariah competition today is governed internationally by IPF (the International Pariah Federation).
Etymology and Terminology
Rules
The rules of pariah are published by IPF in its Handbook. Rules published by naitonal governing bodies, or by unaffiliated pariah organizations, may differ in some details. The IPF's most recent revision to the rules was in 2020.
Setup
The game starts with the two players' king pieces placed on opposite corner squares of the 4x4 square grid board and two opposite color column pieces placed in front of the kings. Conventionally, the kings are placed on the dark square corners rather than the light ones. Outside of the board, each player has 10 extra column pieces of their color, aside from the two already on the board, and a capstone piece of their color.
In competitions, the colors of each player are decided by who is stronger. The stronger player will usually play as white because white offers a slight disadvantage, and reversely, the weaker player will play as black because black offers a slight advantage due to going first. In informal games, the color of the player is usually decided randomly.
Movement
Black moves first, after which players alternate their turns, moving one piece per turn (with the exception of moving stacks). The capstone piece can be moved and placed on any space on the board using a player's turn. It has no limitations on its movement ability. The king and column pieces can only move one square orthogonally, and one piece's length upward and downward. Pieces can move onto either unoccupied squares, or on top of other pieces. Any piece can be placed on top of a column piece, including other column pieces. Kings and capstones cannot have anything placed on top of them. Whenever another piece is placed on top of a column piece, it is known as a stack. When moved, a stack moves everything on top of it with it, including when the stack jumps up to another piece.
Trapping
When a king piece no longer has any spaces to orthogonally move to, and no moves left on its turn to give itself a space to move toward, it is considered trapped.
The object of the game is to trap your opponent's king. Two common ways to do this is to surround the enemy king with either stacks that are at least two pieces high or with impassable pieces, or with the spire method, in which the enemy king in trapped on top of a stack with no way to get down.