Shih is a simple game. It has only on type of piece, one type of space, and three types of moves. All you need to do is capture nine of your opponent's pieces before losing nine of your own. See? I told you it was simple. Then again, few things are as easy as they seem.

I invented Shih (pronounced like "sure" with the "r" clipped halfway through) back in 1997 when a friend was driving me back home after we had played collectible card games for some many hours. I had been lamenting the fact that one, while it had land, did not use the land as any type of location, and I had been trying to come up with a game that might allow players to generate and play across dynamic terrain.

The basic premise of Shih popped into my head during that 20-minute drive, though it has undergone significant changes since then, and I tried my best to explain it to my bewildered friend. However, without diagrams, and given the hour, it was a lost cause. Two weeks later I had constructed a prototype using Triominoes and bent pieces of wire. A little play testing later, and the changes started rolling in.

Originally, the goal was to be the last player alive, but that allowed multi-player game strategy to be all about defense: the player who could avoid engagement let the others weaken one another until he could defeat them all. A quick change in goal granted victory tothe first player (or team) to capture nine enemy peieces. That was fine, but there were still ways players could produce defensive walls that no opponent could breach.

While I was in grad school, I was discussing the game with a friend who had recently played, and he proposed a solution to the problem. I listened but misunderstood what he was trying to say. I explained to my friend the Power Spin, in the form it is now used, but he shook his head. Still, whatever he was trying to propose ended up inspiring the solution. Now an experienced player can almost eliminate an opponent's chances of causing a stalemate, though a talented opponent might find a way.

All along, this has been a labor of love for me. Though this version only has the two-player variant at this time, there are three-, four- and six-player variants, all of which have tested successfully with a physical prototype. There is also an ealier stage to the game that I have not yet implemented, and which you probably won't for some time, but that is a headache for me, not for you.