Quarto
Grade Band: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Time to Play: 20 minutes
Number of Players: 2
Game Style: competitive, consecutive play
Complexity: Level 1
This game can be explained quickly without a full round demonstration, and students will be able to play independently.
Price:
Hachette (Regular) - $39.99
Hachette (Mini) - $25.99
Mathematical Skills:
Pattern Recognition
Geometric Reasoning
Strategic Thinking
Decision Making
Description of Game:
While Quarto initially looks like a 4x4 version of tic-tac-toe there are significant increases in strategy. Each piece has four characteristics in one of two states. Players also choose the piece their opponent will play on the next turn as well.
Rules:
"Quarto has a 4×4 board and 16 pieces. Each piece has four dichotomous attributes — color, height, shape, and consistency — so each piece is either black or white, tall or short, square or round, and hollow or solid. The object is to place the fourth piece in a row in which all four pieces have at least one attribute in common. The twist is that your opponent gets to choose the piece you place on the board each turn." - Board Game Geek
Teacher Resources:
Teacher Tips:
There is also a purchasable app for Apple products, found here.
Like tic-tac-toe before it, Quarto has been solved. Luc Goossens published a paper this year explaining how neither player can force a win and this best solution is a draw. The paper can be found here.
There is also a smaller version of the game under the name 'Quarto Mini' which is mechanically the same, only smaller
The publisher, Gigamic, has many comparable abstract strategy games such as Quoridor (BGG), their website can be found here.
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