Blokus

01Discover the game

Blokus fills a tray of pieces of different shapes. You try to place as many of your small squares as possible before missing access. The essential contact is made through the corners: your own pieces must be joined in this way, but must never share a side.

This tutorial follows classic Blokus, notice Mattel BJV44 ©2013, with four colors and a tray of 20 × 20 boxes. It does not concern Blokus Duo, Trigon, 3D or Shuffle. The overall difficulty is Medium: understand the contacts is fast, but preserve its passages and block the opponents demand anticipation and vision of space. Two to four people play, for about 20 to 30 minutes according to the reflection; this duration is an editorial estimate.

02Equipment

The tray has 400 squares. The 84 pieces are divided into four colours, each with exactly 21 shapes: one piece of one square, one of two, two of three, five of four and twelve of five. The total per color is therefore 1 + 2 + 2 × 3 + 5 × 4 + 12 × 5 = 89 small squares.

Each shape exists only once in the same color. One can turn and rotate a piece; its print must always follow the squares of the grid. No dice, card or picket intervenes. A sheet can be used to compare scores from several parts.

03The goal

Place as many of your squares as possible. At the end, we don't only compare the number of remaining pieces: one piece of five squares weighs more than one piece of one square. The person who keeps the least unused squares wins the basic count.

The advanced score, explained below, gives negative points for the unplaced squares and bonuses if all the coins were played. Choose one of the two counting modes before starting. In both cases, the large coins still in hand are expensive.

04Prepare colors

On four, each person chooses a color and has 21 pieces in front of them. Choose a first player and play in the clockwise direction. Each person must be able to reach a different corner of the board for his or her departure.

On the other hand, one person controls blue and red, the other yellow and green. The order of the colors is blue, yellow, red, green, so one person acts for a precise color at each turn. Do not merge the two colors that you control: each one follows its own contact rules.

On three, each controls a color and the fourth becomes a common color. Keep the order blue, yellow, red, green. When the round of the common color arrives, the players control it in turn, turning this responsibility. Its final score is ignored. The poses of this fourth color remain real poses and can influence the available space.

05Place a room legally

The first placement

For its first piece, each colour must cover one of the four squares of the tray. The room must not simply touch this corner outside; one of its squares actually occupies the corner square. The choice of the starting shape is free, including a large room.

After the start, play exactly one piece of the color of which it is the turn. It must be entirely on the board and not cover any occupied squares. You can look for several rotations or return it before placing it. Once the placement is confirmed, it no longer moves during the game.

With its own colors

The new piece must touch at least one other piece of the same color by a corner. It cannot touch any part of the same color by one side, even in a place other than the main connector. Check all edges: a correct diagonal contact does not allow a closed lateral contact elsewhere on the same pose.

The rule concerns the different pieces. Squares of a single piece are obviously connected between them by their sides: this is not an offence. One cannot separate a piece into several pieces or lay a few squares only.

With other colors

A piece can touch a different color by a side or by a corner, or not touch it at all. However, opponents do not serve as a starting point for your color: you always need your own diagonal contact with a piece of the color played, except for the very first placement in the corner.

With two players, your colors remain different for this rule. Blue can therefore touch the red by one side, even if you control both. However, this red never replaces a blue connection necessary for a new blue coin.

When you can no longer pose

If no legal placement exists for a color with its remaining coins, it passes. The others continue as long as they can play. A blocked color does not remove its coins to clear the road. The land does not open by withdrawals in this base, a passage that seems closed must be checked by looking for all the corners still accessible, not by negotiating a move.

The game stops when no more color can place a coin. A color that has already laid its 21 pieces no longer plays, but can wait for the end of the others. One does not complete the game by placing a coin without respecting the corners on the pretext that there is still empty space.

06An example of contacts

Imagine a blue part in box c3. For a new blue part, b2 is a possible diagonal connection box if all its other boxes are suitable and the edges do not touch any other blue. On the other hand, c4 shares a side with c3: placing a new blue part on c4 would be prohibited. A red part can occupy c4 if its own red connection is legal.

To count a final hand, suppose Alice keeps a piece of five boxes and two of four. She leaves 5 + 4 + 4 = 13 squares. Bob keeps three pieces of three: he leaves nine squares. Even if each keeps three pieces, Bob has the best basic result. The inventory of boxes is more useful than the simple number of shapes.

Enlarge ↗

Enlarge ↗

07Both counts

At the base score, add the squares of your unplayed pieces. The smallest total wins. On two, add the two colors controlled by each person. On three, only counts the personal color and ignores the common color. A total equality can be announced as a shared victory, practical agreement due to lack of particular separation in this leaflet.

At the advanced score, each remaining square is worth less than one point. If you have placed all your coins, you score fifteen positive points; if the piece of a square was your last, add another five, for twenty in total. The small square does not give any bonus if it remained in hand. One person with eight remaining squares mark -8; the one who placed everything by finishing with the monomino mark +20.

Do not mix the modes by adding fifteen to the number of squares still in hand: the advanced score looks for the largest total, while the base score looks for the smallest remaining squares.

08Frequent errors

• Touch two pieces of its color by one side.
• Believing that one good corner excuses another side contact prohibited.
• Confound a self-controlled color and the precise color of the piece played.
• Move an old form to recover an entry.
• Count only the remaining parts, not their boxes.
• Give the bonus of twenty without having placed all the coins and ended with the one of a box.

09Tips for starting

Get out of your corner fast enough. If your first pieces stay tight against the edges, the others can close the passages and leave you many unused shapes. Large pieces are often easier to play as long as the tray is open.

Preserves several accessible corners instead of betting everything on a single diagonal. Before a pose that seems excellent to block someone, check that it does not close your own future passage. At the end of the game, small pieces are useful to slip into the last spaces; keeping them all too long can however cause loss of ground.