The Four Color Theorem comes alive with Blokus

The holiday season is here and, for most of us, this means many hours spent with family and friends.

Tired of playing the same old board games or just sitting around watching movies?

Try Blokus!

This multi-award winning (2004 Teacher’s Choice Award and Mensa Best Mind Game Award of 2003, just to name a few) is one of the best board games that I have come across!

Blokus, a game of strategy, was created in 2000 by Bernard Tavitian, a French mathematician. The game stems from the Four Color Theorem and the use of polyominoes as the pieces, and is a bit reminiscent of Tetris. Not only is this game highly engaging and competitive, it builds on your spatial reasoning and logic skills.

Winning the game may seem simple: be the first to place all your pieces (polyominoes) on the game board.

The only restriction is that each new piece you place on the board must touch another piece of the same color only at the corners (hence the connection to the Four Color Theorem)!

If you don’t have time to run out to the store before Thanksgiving Day arrives, you can play online and compete against players around the world.

Or, you can download Blokus World Tour (for a small fee) and play on your computer. The graphics and competitions are much better at Blokus World Tour and you just can’t help but to keep playing until you win each of the different tournaments. I’m currently at playing Tournament 6 – The Berlin Showdown – where best out of five of the Classic 2 Player and Duo games wins you the tournament.

Once you begin playing, I guarantee that you’ll be hooked! And hopefully you’ll get to claim the title of being the first player in your family to place all their pieces on the board! A title I proudly hold!

Oh, did I mention that you get 50 bonus points if the very last piece you place is the single square piece?