The rules

The aim

Build ribbons, close them, and hold the most closed strands when nobody can place another. The board is always a woven Celtic knot: the game turns every strand to fit it, so you never need to make it work.

The pieces

A strand is one piece in one square. A ribbon is strands joined end to end. There are four strands:

• Cut: turns across one corner of a square.
• Run: crosses the square, side to side.
• Hook: wraps three corners.
• Flip: loops the whole square and fills it.

Strands meet where they cross a square's side: those points are the crossings.

Your turn

1. Place up to three strands from your hand of five. The game's first three turns allow 1, then 2, then 2 strands; after that, up to 3. If any strand of yours fits, you must place at least one.
2. Draw back up to five, one at a time: a face-up strand from the market, or one blind from the pile. Once you draw, you can't place again this turn.
3. End your turn and pass the phone.

You can undo placements until you draw.

Where a strand can go

• Tap a square to try a strand there; tap again to turn it. Each strand has four turns in a square. Red means it can't go there, and the line under the board says why.
• Your first strand can go anywhere.
• Every strand after that either grows one of your ribbons, or starts a new ribbon on or next to a square holding one of your strands. Squares touching diagonally are not considered next to each other.
• Two strands can share a square if they fill different corners of it and don't meet at a crossing. A Flip needs its square to itself.
• A Run, a Hook or a Flip blocks the crossings it bows past: no ribbon can go through them, from either side.
• A new ribbon may not touch another player's open end. To reach theirs, you grow yours (see Capture).
• At the board's edge, a ribbon turns back into the same square: the next strand continues it from the other side of that edge point.

Growing

• A strand grows a ribbon from an open end you had when your turn began. A strand you placed this turn shows as a base: it grows from next turn.
• Each open end grows once a turn.
• A strand that joins two of your ribbons makes one.
• A strand that closes a ribbon can always be placed.

Capture

• Grow one of your ribbons into another player's open end, and the whole ribbon is yours: it takes your color, and its strands count for you once it's closed.
• The far end of a ribbon you just captured can't grow until your next turn.
• When your end and theirs are two strands apart, whoever steps into the gap first can be captured.
• A closed ribbon can never be captured.

Closing

• A ribbon closes when its two ends meet. It must pass a crossing inside the board to close.
• Closing records its points and makes it safe.

The market

• The market has two face-up strands and a pile. A face-up strand you take is replaced from the pile.
• When the market runs out, play goes on without drawing.

The end and the score

• The game ends when nobody can place a strand. If you can't place on your turn, you still take it, see the board, and end it.
• Open ribbons score nothing. The finished knot is revealed.
• Each strand of a closed ribbon scores 1 for its owner (strands joined at the edge count as one).
• The longest closed ribbon scores 5 more. On a tie, the bonus goes to whoever closed one that long first.
• The highest score wins.