The game is played on an 8x8 grid. Each opponent has 1 king, and they share 9 pieces of each of 5 colours.

Each turn, a player moves their king 1 space orthogonally or diagonally and adds 1 coloured block to the board. The first player to surround the opponent's king wins.

The advanced version allows a player to escape if there are two pieces of the same colour adjacent to the king. The game continues until no such escape is possible.