Recommendation : play this variant only when you have enough experience with the game as described above . That is and remains the standard game.

However, this variant was in the running until the final rules of LYNGK had to be locked in. Games played this way are often shorter because of an added special twist.

The twist is a sudden-death feature: a player who completes a stack of 6 pieces wins the game at once. Without experience, the sudden-death may result too often in a coincidental win, i.e. a sudden opportunity to win without having played for it.

However, it would be a pity to completely withhold it, and for that reason it is offered here as a variant.

Players shall respect the rules as described for the standard game, but with the following additional stipulations:

1. Stacks of 5 pieces must remain on the board.

2. A joker piece now has a double function: besides being used as a piece in any of the 5 other colors (as in the standard game), it also represents the color "white", i.e. a color in its own right.

   Note: although a joker piece is also representing a color in this variant, it remains a passive piece. The color white cannot be claimed, nor may it be used to make a move with. A joker piece may still only be moved as part of a stack.

3. Obviously, to make a stack of 6 pieces a player needs at least one joker piece in the stack with pieces of the 5 other colors.

   This one joker piece must represent the color white in the stack, but, as in the standard game, a second and even third joker piece may be used to replace missing colors in th..e stack.

   The player who succeeds in making a stack of 6 pieces, with one of his claimed colors on top, wins instantly.

4. If it happens that a player completes a stack of 6 pieces with a neutral piece on top, it does not count as a win.

5. In case there are no more moves and neither of the players succeeded in making a stack of 6 pieces, then the player with the most stacks of 5 pieces on the board wins the game.

   If that does not determine the winner, then count the stacks consisting of 4 colors, and so on.

Continue Reading