Blokus – The Family Board Game

Blokus is very simple to understand and to master and is the best product for beginners and for young players.

Blokus is an abstract strategy board game for two to four players, invented by Bernard Tavitian and published in 2000 by the Sekkoia company. Blokus has won several awards, including the Mensa Select award and the 2004 Teacher’s Choice Award. Tavitian, an engineer and artist, was inspired to create the game while trying to find an appropriate frame for a painting of an orchestra made up of geometric figures.

Rules for playing Blokus
Composition of Blokus:
Blokus is composed of the following elements :
A game board with 400 squares.
84 pieces (i.e. 21 pieces in each of the four colours).
Each of the 21 pieces has a different shape.

1 piece made up of one square (which could be called a “monomino”…. if this term existed).
1 piece made up of two squares (a « domino »).
2 pieces made up of three squares (« triominos »).
5 pieces made up of four squares (« tetraminos »).
12 pieces made up of five squares (« pentaminos»).  

Purpose of Blokus:
The purpose of the game is for each player to place his/her 21 pieces on the board (or at least the maximum number of pieces).

Restrictions while playing Blokus:
Each player must begin at one of the corners of the board.
The order of play is blue, yellow, red, green.
Each new piece that is placed on the board must touch another piece of the same colour, but it can only touch at the corners, never along the sides.

End of the game :
When a player is blocked and can no longer place any pieces on the board, s/he must miss his/her turn. The other players continue in the normal order of play until no one can place any more pieces on the board.

Calculating points in Blokus :
When all the players are blocked, each person counts the number of squares that s/he was unable to place on the board and calculates his/her score :
Each square which is not placed on the board counts as a negative point.
A bonus of 15 points is awarded if all 21 pieces have been placed on the board.
This bonus is increased to 20 points if the 21 pieces were placed on the board with the single square being placed last.

— zsuaro —