Ringo (game)
Ringo is a two-player abstract strategy board game possibly from Germany. It may have been invented sometime in the late 19th century or early 20th century, but it's unknown. There are many versions of the game with different rules circulating, but the rules described here are from R.C. Bell's "Discovering Old Board Games" (1973) which is a translation from a German text by M. C. Oswald. The game simulates a siege of a citadel. Attackers are attempting to enter the citadel while defenders are trying to protect it and reduce the number of attackers. A  feature in Ringo is an area on the board called the Neutral Zone where pieces cannot be captured which makes for some interesting attack tactics on the citadel. There are two forms of capture that can be performed by either the attackers or the defenders: Leap and Substitution. Capture by leap is similar to that of draughts or Alquerque which makes Ringo their distant relative although some consider it to be a descendant of Tafl games due to the asymmetry in the number of pieces and each side's objective. Capture by substitution is exactly as in chess but  apart from this capturing method there is very little resemblance between Ringo and chess. The etymology of the name Ringo may be unknown, and R.C. Bell does not discuss it. But the word Ringo is composed of the syllable "ring" as in the 5 concentric rings of the board, and the syllable "o" as in the shape of the citadel which is a circle in the center of the board. Setup. The board is circular consisting of a central circle (called the citadel) and five concentric rings surrounding the citadel. Eight lines radiate from the citadel. This creates 40 spaces  outside the citadel. With the citadel, there are 41 spaces on the board. The 40 spaces outside the citadel follow a checkered color scheme of light and dark colors specifically white and gray within the Neutral Zone, and white and black outside the Neutral Zone. The citadel is colored white. There are seven attacker pieces colored black, and four defender pieces colored white. The seven attackers are initially placed at the farthest ring from the citadel each occupying its own space; only the space in the Neutral Zone is left empty. There are 4 defenders in the first ring (the  ring closest to the citadel) leaving exactly one vacant space between them in such a way that the space in the Neutral Zone is also left empty. Players decide who will be the attackers and who will be the defenders.