Review: Enso
Enso is a game inspired by the Zen concept of the Enso (円相): the circle drawn by Zen monks. Players move their stones and capture their opponent’s, aiming to position one of their stones so that it is surrounded by open spaces in eight directions, as if enclosed within a circle. What makes this game unique is that the moves a stone can make depend on whether it is adjacent to opponent stones.
This is the premise behind Enso, a design by Dieter Stein (Urbino, Volo). First published in 2026 by Kanare_Abstract in a bilingual English and Japanese edition, with cover illustration handled by Kanare Kato.






