How to play Tak

Pieces

Each player has flats and (on 5×5 boards and up) one or two capstones.

• Flat — lies down. Counts toward roads and toward the flat count.
• Standing (a flat stood on edge, aka a "wall") — blocks roads through it and can't be moved onto, but doesn't count toward either win condition.
• Capstone — always a road piece; can flatten a standing wall it moves onto alone (see Capstones below). Never counts toward the flat count.

Placement

On your turn, place one piece from your reserve onto any empty square, as a flat, standing, or capstone.

Opening swap: the first move of the game (both players' very first turn) must place a flat piece in your opponent's color. This cancels the first-move advantage — after that, every placement is your own color.

Movement & stacks

A square's stack is controlled by whoever's piece is on top — only that player may pick it up. Instead of placing, you may move a stack you control:

• Pick up the top 1..N pieces (N = board size, and no taller than the stack itself).
• Slide them one straight direction: left, right, up, or down — no diagonals, no turns.
• Drop one or more pieces on each square you pass through and the one you stop on; every dropped piece stacks on top of whatever is already there.
• The piece that started on top of your hand is dropped last — it lands on top, farthest.

Capstones & flattening

A square topped by a capstone can never be moved onto. A square topped by a standing wall is also blocked — unless a lone capstone (carrying nothing, dropping exactly one) moves onto it: the wall is flattened into a flat, and the capstone lands on top of it. This is the only way a wall changes shape.

Roads

A road is an unbroken chain of your road pieces (flats and capstones — never walls) connecting the two opposite edges of the board, in either direction. The instant either player completes a road, the game ends immediately — a road win outranks everything else, including who has more flats.

Flat wins

If nobody roads, the game ends when a player places their last piece or the board fills up. Whoever has more flats on top of a stack wins — walls and capstones don't count. Equal flat counts is a draw.

Komi

To offset the first-move advantage on a flat win, the second player can be given komi — bonus flats added to their count before comparing. A half-point komi (e.g. 2.5) also guarantees a flat win is never a draw. Komi never applies to a road win, and defaults to 0.

Keyboard shortcuts

The board is fully playable by keyboard — Tab or Enter into it, then:

Arrow keys

Move the board cursor

Space / Enter

Place, lift, or drop a stack

c

Cycle piece kind — flat → wall → cap

1–8

Set the carry count

`

Drop friendly (stop before an opposing piece)

Esc

Cancel the current draft, then exit the board

Tab / Shift+Tab

Leave the board for the next/previous control

?

Open the in-game cheat sheet