Kensington

35 years ago, a friend gave me a board game as a Christmas gift. I had never heard of the game, but it is my all time favorite strategy board game:

KENSINGTON!

Rather than packaged in a box, the game board fits in a cardboard sleeve, covered in plastic. It is reminiscent of an old 33 album from the time of turntables, record players and jukeboxes.

Still my favorite strategy board game after all these years!

I believe the photograph testifies to the less than mint condition of my copy of KENSINGTON.

As noted on the cover,

A minute to learn-A lifetime to master

Let’s Take a Minute to Learn

Below is the game board.

Notice there are two red hexagons, two blue hexagons, and three white ones.

Triangles and squares surround the hexagons. (That will be important!)

Just fyi: Hexagons have six sides.

While the game can be played by 2/6 players, I have only played as one of two players.

So, in a two player game, each receives either 15 red tokens or 15 blue tokens.

Object of the game:

Complete a hexagon with color coordinating tokens before your opponent. White hexagons can be filled by either red or blue.

Let’s Review!

Choose red or Choose blue.
Receive 15 red tokens if you choose red.
Receive 15 blue tokens if you choose blue.

Begin by each player taking turns placing token on any point or intersection.

If you make a triangle with your tokens, you can pick up one token of your opponent and move to any free point available on the board.

If you make a square with your tokens, you can pick up two tokens of your opponent and move to any free points available on the board.

The way you prevent your opponent from completing a hexagon and winning is by placing one or more of your tokens in the opponent’s hexagon.

Once you and your opponent have placed all of your tokens on the board, you may move one of your tokens to any free and available point.
In other words, you may not move into a spot where a token is already placed.

That’s the basic game and why it easy to learn. Do not be deceived because it is also true that it takes a lifetime to master. And, then some…

A few things that work for me, that may work for you:

 Choose red tokens. They are easier to see if you need reading glasses like me.
 Let your opponent go first. That way you get to place the last token before the moving of one token at a time begins.
 Never play with rock masons, engineers or anyone who builds as a hobbyist or builds, constructs for a living.

Here is what a potential game board could look like after all tokens have been placed on board:

Like the simplicity, yet strategy involved in playing..ie..winning a game of strategy, friends have tried to get me interested in Chess, but it has yet to garner my interest the way that KENSINGTON has all of these years.

Some Background:

Kensington is an abstract strategy board game devised by Brian Taylor and Peter Forbes in 1979, named after London's Kensington Gardens, which contains the mosaic upon which the gameboard is patterned. It is played on a geometrical board based on the rhombitrihexagonal tiling pattern. The objective of the game is to capture a hexagon by occupying the six surrounding vertices. The game maintains an elegant simplicity while still allowing for astonishingly complex strategy. The placing and movement of tokens have been compared to Nine Men's Morris.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_(game)

Where to find a copy:

https://www.amazon.com/Kensington-60120-Board-Game-1979/dp/B001JY2KZE