XOK

About this board game

XOK is a two-player abstract game played in about 15 minutes, where players place fish and sharks to build a connected group of ten. Released in 2024, it combines careful placement with sharks that can remove an opponent’s fish.

On each turn, choose between two actions: place two fish on adjacent empty spaces, or place one shark. Sharks can be placed directly on an opponent’s fish or adjacent to one or more of their fish, but every shark placement must eat at least one fish.

• Small sharks eat the fish directly in front of their mouth.
• Large sharks eat the fish in front of both of their two mouths.
• A shark placed on a fish eats that fish as well as one or two adjacent fish.

Fish removed by sharks are returned to their owner, so they can be placed again on a later turn. This makes every attack part of the changing race to assemble a group of ten fish and sharks.

The first player to group ten of their fish and sharks wins. If a player cannot take a turn, the game ends instead, and the player with the largest group wins; if groups are tied, the number of sharks in those groups determines the winner.

With its two shark sizes, repeatable fish supply, and direct conflict over placement, XOK offers a compact contest in which building your own group and breaking up your opponent’s group happen together.