WYPS

Brief history

The first version of the game was invented in 2002. The game was played with different rules on the Little Golem server. More than 800 players tried more than 20 variants before the final rules were released.

Rules

WYPS is an abstract word game for two players.

Components

The game is played on a triangular board with hexagonal squares. The rules are the same for all sizes of the board.

White’s first move is HIP

There are stones with letters. The stones have two different sides, each side representing one player. On each stone there is exactly one letter. The number of stones corresponds to the number of squares on the board (36 for size 8). At the beginning of the game, all the stones are in a bag.

Swap move

Each player draws stones from the bag (five on a size-8 board). The black player can swap the stones between the players. All letters must always be swapped.

Gameplay

The players form words from their letters and from the letters on the board. If a player uses the opponent’s letters on the board, they flip one of those tiles to their own side. Instead of forming a word, it is possible to place only one letter from the rack on the board. At least one letter from the rack must be used on each turn. After the turn, up to seven replacement letters are drawn (depending on the size of the board), provided the bag is not empty. The first move is made by the white player. If a player forms a word in a straight line, they flip all the opponent’s tiles used in that word to their own side.

Play continues with the next player.

Black plays CHINA and turns over a stone.

White plays ARCH in a straight line and turns over all the opponent’s stones used in the word.

Goal of the game

The object of the game is to form a group of stones connected to all three sides of the board.

White plays DOES and connects all three sides of the board. This move is called atari (attack). Black’s move must break this connection.

Black’s move SEARCH breaks White’s atari and creates an atari for Black.

White plays CHILD, using two letters from the rack and two of the opponent’s stones. White can flip C or H to the white side and chooses H.

End of game

Play continues until a player’s group connects all three sides of the board and the opponent cannot break the connection on their next turn. Note that the corners are considered to belong to the two adjacent sides.

White plays FLED. Black cannot find a reply and resigns, so White wins.

Variants on Little Golem

WYPS is played on Little Golem in multiple languages on boards of sizes 5, 8, 11 and 14.

There is also a numeric version where the letters are replaced by numbers. You must play even numbers or sequences of numbers.

Board sizes and letter distribution

WYPS can be played on any board size and in any language.

English

German

Spanish

French

Italian

Japanese

Dutch

Polish

Russian

Greek

Czech

Slovak

WYPS for 4 players

The 4-player variant is a lot of fun. Players play together in pairs. Each of the four players has as many stones as in a two-player game. This means that, for example, on a board of size 8, each player has 5 stones. The start of the game is similar to a 2-player game. Players randomly select 4 sets of stones and players sequentially choose their set of stones in a counterclockwise order. The player who picked the stones last starts the game.

In a 4-player game, the atari rule does not apply. This means that the connection does not have to be broken immediately. If one of the players no longer has stones, the game continues and that player passes their turn.

Important rule: players can talk out loud during the game and analyze their moves together!

The game is very challenging because the endgame, when no stones remain in the bag, begins very early.