Quoridor

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Quoridor

Players	2-4
Age range	8 and up
Setup time	< 1 minute
Playing time	20 minutes
Random chance	None
Skills required	Deduction

Quoridor is a 2–4-player abstract strategy game designed by Mirko Marchesi and published by both Gigamic Games and Great American Trading Company. Quoridor received the Mensa Mind Game award in 1997 ^[1].

Diagram 1: This is the starting position in a 4 player game.
Green and Orange are not used in a 2 player game.

Diagram 2: The wall positioned at 'A' is legal. The wall positioned at 'B' is illegal.

1 Rules of the game
2 History
3 Strategies
4 References
5 See also
6 External links
- 6.1 Papers on implementing Quoridor-playing algorithms

[edit] Rules of the game

Object

Be the first player to move a pawn to the opposite side of the gameboard.

Equipment

1 9×9 gameboard with 81 squares
4 pawns (different colors)
20 walls (the length of a wall is 2 squares)

Setup

The game starts with the pawns on the gameboard. (See Diagram 1)
The game starts with no walls on the gameboard.
- In a 2-player game each player starts with 10 walls.
- In a 4-player game each player starts with 5 walls.

Gameplay

On a turn a player may choose one of the following options:
- Move the pawn.
- Position a wall on the gameboard.

Movement

A pawn moves orthogonally one square.
- If a pawn is adjacent to another pawn it can jump over the adjacent pawn.
  - If there is a wall or a second pawn behind the adjacent jumped pawn the jumping pawn can move to any square adjacent to the jumped pawn.
  - The official rules are ambiguous concerning the edge of the board.
A pawn cannot move through a wall.
A wall cannot be moved.
A pawn must be moved if a wall cannot be placed

Positioning a wall

Walls are positioned on the intersections of the gameboard.
Walls must be positioned so that it impedes movement from 4 squares. (See Diagram 2)
Walls must be positioned so that the entire wall is on the gameboard.
Walls cannot be positioned so that it makes it impossible for any of the pawns to reach the opposite side.
Walls cannot be positioned on an existing wall.

End of the game

The first player to reach the opposite side of the gameboard is the winner, regardless of who played first.

[edit] History

Quoridor is also based on Mirko Marchesi's earlier game Blockade which was published in the 1970s. Marchesi also created another version of this game called Pinko Pallino was published in 1995 by Epta. Pinko Pallino was only for 2 players and was played on an 11×11 gameboard with a total of 42 walls and slightly different rules.^[2]

[edit] Strategies

Reed opening: This opening consists in placing, during the first two moves of the game, two walls on the third row in front of the opponent with a single gap in the middle. This opening is attributed to Dr. Scott Reed (Edinburgh, UK), a known military strategist and frequent player.