Djambi (also described as "Machiavelli's chessboard") is a board game and a chess variant for four players, invented by Jean Anesto in 1975. The rulebook in French describes the game, the pieces and the rules in a humorous and theatrical way, clearly stating that the game pieces are intended to represent all wrongdoings in politics.
The game is played on a square board with 81 cells in a 9ÃÂ9 arrangement. The central square (called "the maze") is marked with a different color or a sign. When a corpse is returned to the board, players generally are restricted from returning the corpse to the maze, with one exception.
Each player has nine pieces:
The objective of the game is to get absolute power by being the last chief alive on board. Although informal alliances can be temporarily agreed upon, there is no team: each player plays against the other players.
Each player's pieces are placed in one corner of the board as shown in the picture above. The red player starts first, and turns proceed through the blue, yellow, and green players.
Each player, during their turn, moves one of their pieces; each piece can move in a straight line in one of eight directions along a row, column, or diagonal, identical to how a queen moves in chess. The militants move one or two squares in the eight directions; the other pieces can move through any number of squares in the eight directions. However, no piece can pass through a cell that is already occupied.
If the maze is unoccupied, all pieces may pass through the maze without stopping; only a chief is allowed to stop in the maze. When the maze is occupied by a chief, a militant may not enter (i.e., capture) that chief, but any of the other pieces may enter the maze to kill or move the chief in power.
A move may result in capturing an opponent's piece, depending on the piece being moved and where it ends its move relative to that opposing piece.
The pieces are "killed" as soon as they are captured, but their "corpses" are not removed from the board; instead, the corpses are returned to the board turned upside down to show that they are "dead". Each of the killer pieces has a different capture style:
The diplomat and the necromobile cannot kill the other pieces but can move them.
When a player kills an opponent's chief, they take control of the remaining living pieces of that opponent. At their turn, they will have the choice between using one of their own pieces, or using one of the captured pieces.
When a player has no necromobile and their chief is surrounded by corpses, they are eliminated unless they are in power, i.e., in the maze. The remaining living pieces of the surrounded chief now belong to the chief in power. If there is no chief in power, then those pieces cannot be moved or killed, until the moment when a chief takes the power, and captures them in that way. The first chief to seize power by entering the maze keep controls of these pieces even after they leave the maze.
The central square of the board (E5) is called the maze. Each piece can go through this square, but the chief is the only piece that can stop on it. A chief who is in the maze is a chief "in power". When they leave the maze, they lose this power. There are four key advantages of holding the maze:
An assassin or a chief can enter the maze to kill a living chief. When a chief kills another chief in power, the corpse is returned to the board to any empty square at the killing chief's discretion, and the killing chief has ascended to power. If an assassin kills a chief, the following sequence is followed within a single turn:
If the reporter kills a chief in power, the chief's corpse remains in the maze, blocking any other chief from entering the maze until a player moves their necromobile (if one is available) to enter the maze and move the corpse. Similar to the situation when an assassin enters the maze to kill a chief, the necromobile must make an additional move to exit the maze on the same turn.
Similarly, a diplomat may enter the maze to displace a living chief in power, and is required to take an additional move to exit the maze on the same turn after the chief is moved.
The original rules humorously state these additional exit moves are mandatory to avoid a "precarious" situation that would leave an assassin empowered in the maze.
There can be informal agreements or alliances between the players, but there is no rule to prevent any betrayal.
The game ends when only one chief remains.
The pieces of the missing fourth player are "hostages". These pieces can be killed or moved by the pieces of the players, but cannot move or kill on their own. When the chief is captured, the normal rules to take control of them apply. The hostage chief can be placed in the maze, but it has no influence on the game.
Guy Debord was gifted a Djambi set in the 1970s by Gérard Lebovici, but found it unrealistic and developed A Game of War, publishing it in 1978.