Room and Pillar 2026

Room and Pillar is played on a Kōnane board. That is, a rectangular grid of pits that can hold one stone each. The grid can be any size, with at least one even dimension. The board is initially filled with a checkerboard pattern of black and white stones.

PlayThe two players, Black and White, take turns removing a stone of their own color, one stone per turn, starting with Black. After the first removal, every subsequent removal must be orthogonally (horizontally or vertically) adjacent to an empty point. Additionally, your move must never create a 2x2 area of empty pits. Passing is not allowed.

The goal is to be the last player to move. In other words, if you don’t have a move available, you lose.

Room and Pillar uses the pie rule: White, on his first turn, has the option of switching colors and becoming Black, claiming the first move (removal) as his own, instead of removing a white stone.

Design notesRoom and Pillar was inspired by the ancient, Hawaiian game of Kōnane. True to the spirit of Kōnane, Room and Pillar begins with a checkerboard pattern of stones, and is very simple. Room and Pillar was also inspired by the room and pillar mining process, in which ore is removed from a “room”, and “pillars” of ore are left in place to hold up the ceiling. The pillars can’t be too widely spaced, or the ceiling will collapse.

—description from the publisher