One of the reasons Blokus is so satisfying is because although it is easy and doesn't require background, it's still a challenge to design and implement a strategy. So addicting, in fact, that every time I sat down to write, I instead found myself thinking of reasons to play the game - research, you know - instead of writing about it. No, it's difficult to write about Blokus for the miserable excuse that it is fun to play Blokus. Not because the game is hard (I'm confident that a seven-year-old playing online beats me regularly) or because there's loads of background and research - this isn't exactly Dungeons & Dragons, where a thorough history of the story is required. Originally Published: Author's Note: How Blokus Works It's available in both Google Play and the Apple App Store. Yes, there's a Blokus app that lets you play on your smartphone or tablet. By judging priorities in a board game (should I attack aggressively or build patiently?), you're able to plan for the future while keeping an eye on what resources you need on hand. For instance, the financial investment Web site The Motley Fool even suggests that making agonizing decisions about where to situate your squares on a Blokus game board teaches you patient investment strategies. (Middle schoolers, be sure to keep this article handy when you're caught playing Blokus on your phone in math class.)īlokus can help you with more practical things, too. Authors Michael and Paula Maida determined that investing a short period of time in playing the game yielded improvements in students' geometric and spatial reasoning, as well as problem-solving skills. An article published in the journal in April 2011 studied the use of Blokus in math classrooms as a learning tool. Įven scholarly journals like Mathematics Teaching in Middle School have highlighted the game's brain-boosting potential. As we said, it's gained a huge following in general and has been heralded by smarty-pants organizations like Mensa (a society for those special folks with the highest of high IQs) as a "Select" game, which "indicates that a game is original, challenging and well-designed". Theorems or not, you're still playing a brain game. But only a computer program has been able to prove it, and mathematicians are still searching for the ultimate human proof. The theorem states that on any given map, you only need four colors to distinguish separate territories - that is, without any borders of the same color touching each other, side by side. Īnother influence? The four-color theorem, first introduced in 1852 by Francis Guthrie. With the thought that each similarly colored piece should never touch, the game of Blokus was born. One day, he was attempting to frame a painting he had finished of an orchestra represented by geometric figures, and he decided that he wanted colored shapes to frame the picture. Reverse Blokus: The player with the last tile segments on the board wins.Not satisfied with book smarts, Tavitian was also a painter. These pieces do not contribute to a player's score. Three player game: Each player chooses one color the players take turns placing pieces for the fourth colors. Two player game: Each player uses two colors. Determining the winner is also left to you, to allow maximum flexibility in creating your own variants. You must use the honor system to determinate whether a player has a move to make. Winning the game: Once no players can make any more moves, the player with the most tile segments on the board wins. If a player can play a piece, he cannot opt not to. Whenever a player cannot play a piece, his turn is skipped. The first piece played by any player must cover a corner square. The placement of pieces is governed by one rule: Each new piece must be placed so that it touches at least one other piece of the same color, diagonally, and not adjacently. Before the game, each player chooses one color by any mutually agreeable method. Game Rules:īlokus is played with four players. Your mission will come to be able to put as many pieces as possible on the Blokus table so that at the end of the game you can keep a few pieces as possible on the table, or even manage to put all the shapes on the table. Blokus Online - is a strategy and logic game in which you have to play with different geometric squares in the shape of a square, L, rectangle, and other shapes.
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