How To Play: Coffee
Learn Coffee’s two-player setup, stone placement, direction rod and the two ways to win the abstract game.
The aim of Coffee
Coffee is Néstor Romeral Andrés’s two-player abstract game. Make a line of your own stones or leave your opponent unable to orient the direction rod legally.
Setup
Choose a square or hexagonal board size and agree the number of consecutive stones needed to win. That number cannot exceed the board’s side length. Begin with an empty board, black and orange stones, and the white direction rod. Agree beforehand whether the second player may swap colours after the opening move.
Your turn
- Black places a stone in an empty cell, then puts the rod on that stone along a board direction.
- Orange, then Black alternately, places a stone in an empty cell on the line indicated by the rod.
- Move the rod onto the new stone and choose its direction. An orientation leaving no available cell for the next player is illegal.
Winning
Complete the agreed line of your colour to win. A player unable to orient the rod legally loses. If both conditions occur on the same turn, completing the line takes priority. There are no draws.
Source: Coffee official rulebook, nestorgames.
Teaching tip
Before the first game, demonstrate a legal direction on the empty board. Ask each player to explain the next available cells before moving the rod. This makes a mistaken interpretation visible before it changes the result.
Read our Coffee review for a closer look at the game.