YINSH is played on a board shaped like a truncated six-pointed star with a triangular grid and 85 spaces (referring to the nodes or intersections), including those along the perimeter.

The game starts with an empty board, and proceeds in two phases, placement followed by movement.

During the first phase the players, take turns placing one of their rings on the board on any unoccupied space, beginning with white.

If both players have removed the same number of rings at this point, the game ends in a draw.

No official online versions of YINSH exist, but there are number of unofficial implementations.