From western Kenya comes one of the fastest board games ever made. A game takes a minute; mastering the pond takes rather longer.
The goal
Line up your three pieces in a straight row — which always means two opposite rim points plus the centre. There are only four such rows on the whole board.
How to play
- Slide, don't jump. Click one of your pieces, then a highlighted point. Pieces move exactly one step along a line: to a neighbouring rim point, or into and out of the centre. Nothing is ever captured.
- Aim through the middle. Every winning row passes through the centre point, the shisima. Every plan is about controlling one of the four rows.
- Defend while you build. Occupying the centre blocks all four rows at once — but your own row needs the centre too, so you cannot camp there forever.
Controls
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Gold dashed ring | A piece that can move. Click to select, click again to deselect. |
| Green dot | An adjacent empty point your selected piece can slide to. |
| The shisima | The glowing centre point. Watch it closely. |
| Golden beam | Three in a row — the winning line lights up across the pond. |
In the side panel you choose your opponent — the computer or a friend online — set the difficulty, play as White or Black, undo your last move, follow the move list, toggle the sound and reopen the rules. Every landing sends a ripple across the water.
Play 2 player Shisima online with a friend
Pick With a friend online, press Open a table and you get a four-character code. Send it to whoever you want to play — they open this same page, type the code and press Join. No account, no download, and a chat window in the corner.
A game lasts about a minute, which makes this one of the better games here to play against a person: you can fit a dozen rounds into a coffee break, and the draws by repetition — which are common between two cautious players — are over quickly enough that nobody minds. The winning line lights up on both screens at the same moment.
Whoever opened the table plays White and moves first.
Strategy
- The centre is everything — briefly. A piece in the shisima blocks all four rows. The skill is timing: hold it when defending, leave it the moment your own row is ready.
- Claim opposite ends. Two pieces on the two ends of one row is the strongest shape. The moment the centre is free, you slide in and win.
- Make threats that build. Every move that forces a defensive answer is a free move for your own plan.
- Don't crowd your own water. Three pieces bunched together block each other's paths. Keep them spread so every piece has somewhere to swim.
Play it away from the screen
Print the pond: the printable Shisima board puts the octagon on one sheet, six men to cut out on a second and the rules on a third. It is the quickest set in the collection to make — six pieces, and the rules fit on an index card.
Want the deeper game?
The full Shisima guide shows the four winning rows with diagrams, explains why the centre is both the strongest and the most useless point on the board, and covers what separates it from noughts and crosses.
About the game
Shisima comes from the Tiriki people of western Kenya, where it is a children's game drawn in the dirt and played with bottle caps or pebbles. It belongs to the oldest and most universal family of board games, the three-in-a-row games, which nearly every culture invented independently. Mathematics educators later brought it into classrooms worldwide, where it teaches symmetry, planning and logical defence in the space of a spare minute.
The same game, everywhere
Shisima is one of a family. Three-in-a-row games around the world puts it beside Achi from Ghana, Picaria from the American Southwest, Tapatan and the rest — the same idea, arrived at independently, with boards that differ in ways that change the game.
