TAMSK

TAMSK is a two-player abstract strategy board game designed by Belgian game designer Kris Burm and first published in 1998 as the second entry in his GIPF project series of connected abstract games. Unlike its siblings, TAMSK was later dropped from the official series lineup in favor of a different title, TZAAR, though it remains available and playable on its own. Each player begins with thirty-two rings and places them on a hexagonal board, working to strand an opponent's rings so they cannot be moved before time runs out. The game's distinguishing feature is its use of sand-filled hourglass timers as movable pieces, so a player must race the falling sand of the timers on the board rather than a fixed turn clock, a mechanic the designer has described as unusual among board games generally, not only within his own series.