Blokus, a New Twist on Classic Board Games

Many games have been created to enhance learning and to help build logical thinking skills. Chess is one such game, but often times is complicated and too hard to understand for many people. Checkers is fun but often times is too simple, you think there would be an in-between. Well one man, and engineer and artist has created such a game, the world renowned game of Blokus.

Blokus is a game in which up to four players control a single color, Red, Blue, Green, or Yellow and play pieces of their corresponding on a square board. The pieces are pre arranged, some looking like L's others looking like +'s or T's and the object is trying to play all of your pieces. The catch is that your pieces can never touch on anther except on corners, making the game very challenging.

It's a game you'll have to see to believe but it's amazingly fun. My teacher uses this in his class and hold small tournaments to promote good quality thinking skills in all areas of the mind. To play the game you have to use strategy in order to place pieces, cunning in order to stop opponents from playing pieces, and creative thinking, trying to play pieces in unusual ways in order to win the game. Mathematics also place a large part in the game as well. You can look at the board that is complied of a certain number of squares, and then your pieces are made out of so many squares, factor in the space for used up and waster ect.

There are many variations of this game, like Trigon, the same concept, but with triangle shaped pieces and a hexagon shaped board. There is also Giant Blokus, a much larger version of the original game, and an assortment of other games created by Bernard Tavitian, the mastermind behind the game. Each of these variations is just as fun to play as the original, and add an interesting twist on this great game.

Blokus has really taken off in terms of popularity, the first tournaments were held in France just recently with the winner walking away with many prizes associated with the game. Blokus is just a good game that has learning potential and is not too complicated and the concept is not all too hard to grasp. The play can be simple, yet complex, and still everyone who plays falls in love with the game.

Now let's say you have the game, Blokus, Trigon, whatever, yet you have no one to play with, what do you do? Well you can jump on their website find some interesting brain teasers created by other players, or check out the booklets that come with the games. Both places have an assortment of mind bending puzzles that are really a lot of fun to try and figure out. One of the most fun was trying to play a game with yourself in which all the pieces are placed on the board using legal moves, and all the rules of the game. There is just limitless potential with Blokus.

So if you looking for something to occupy your spare time, or a learning tool, that's also fun and engaging then you may want to give Blokus, or one of it's many variations a try.