Board Games
How to play Blokus
Place irregular pieces while linking your own color by corners and keeping room for later shapes.
What you need
20×20 board and 21 distinct pieces per color
Set up the game
- Use blue, yellow, red, green turn order. Each color’s first piece covers a board corner.
- At two players one controls blue/red, the other yellow/green, retaining all four turns.
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Playing Blokus
- Place one unused piece fully on empty squares. Rotate or flip to fit.
- After the first piece, touch your color at a corner, never along an edge. Different colors may touch either way. Placed pieces never move.
- A blocked color makes no more placements. Continue until all colors are blocked or finished.
- Each square left unplayed costs one point. A color placing everything instead earns fifteen, plus five if the one-square piece was last. Highest score wins; two-player scores combine your colors.
More shapes can cost less
Leaving two five-square pieces scores minus ten. Leaving a one-, two- and three-square piece scores minus six. Three shapes remain, but their smaller combined area produces the better score.
Trace every edge
Before setting a piece down, trace its outside squares. Confirm that it reaches a friendly corner and that a distant arm does not share a friendly edge. A legal connection at one end cannot excuse an illegal contact elsewhere. Do not slide neighbors aside to make an intended shape fit.
Three players share the fourth color
The printed three-player variant rotates control of the spare color and ignores its score. Keep a clear turn reminder so that shared placement does not become a negotiation each round. The board still fills with all four colors; simply omitting one changes space and interaction.
Protect access, not just territory
An empty area is useful only if a legal corner route reaches it and an unplayed shape fits. Avoid celebrating a large enclosed pocket before checking those two conditions. A small entrance can be more valuable than several apparently safe squares.
Beginner decisions
- Look at the shape of an opening, not just its area. A channel can fit one five-square piece and reject another.
- Try awkward remaining shapes before spending a flexible small piece on the same opening.
Common rule mix-ups
- Allowing an edge contact because a corner also touches.
- Counting unplayed shapes instead of their individual squares.
Questions about this game
Can I touch an opponent’s edge?
Yes. Only your own color has the edge restriction.
Does one blocked color stop the game?
No. Others keep placing.
Sources and edition notes
Mattel R1983 classic twenty-by-twenty board. Two players use two colors each; Duo and Junior differ.
Sources and stated format checked October 14, 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing.
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