Focus

A 1963 abstract classic where stacking your pieces too high can bury your own advantage.

👥 2–4 players⏱ approx. 45 min🪄 A round to warm up8+

SdJ 1981★ 5.8 · BGG #5,368

Who it's for

Abstract strategy fans who want a short, sharp, luck-free duel that rewards reading the board several moves ahead.

Not for you if…

You need theme or story to stay engaged, because Focus gives you nothing but pure geometry and consequence.

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Vibe's take

cerebral, tense, elegant, unforgiving, quietly aggressive

See how it plays

About this game

Focus turns a cross-shaped board into a tower-building puzzle where height is both your weapon and your weakness. You push stacks of your own color across the grid, and every capture folds an opponent's piece under yours, but stack too tall and the bottom pieces spill off and become reserves you can drop back into play later. Sid Sackson built this in 1963 and it still bites: the piece you are protecting one turn becomes the piece burying you the next. Two rounds of pure position and timing, no luck, no theme, just the board changing under your hands.

Stack-and-capture core mechanicOverflowing stacks feed your reservesTimeless Sid Sackson design

Get it

Buy on Amazon.com BGG