Quarto (board game)

Quarto board at start of game

Quarto is a board game for two players invented by Swiss mathematician Blaise Müller in 1991.^[1][2]

It is played on a 4×4 board. There are 16 unique pieces, each of which is either:

• tall or short;
• red or blue (or a different pair of colors, e.g. light- or dark-stained wood);
• square or circular; and
• hollow-top or solid-top.

Players take turns choosing a piece which the other player must then place on the board. A player wins by placing a piece on the board which forms a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row of four pieces, all of which have a common attribute (all short, all circular, etc.). A variant rule included in many editions gives a second way to win by placing four matching pieces in a 2x2 square.

Quarto is distinctive in that there is only one set of common pieces, rather than a set for one player and a different set for the other. It is therefore an impartial game.

Awards

• 1993 Mensa Select Winner
• 1993 Spiel des Jahres Recommended
• 2001 Vuoden Peli Adult Game of the Year Winner

References

External links

• Quarto and 2x2-Quarto: Windows Desktop version with unbeatable AI
• Quatter: FOSS 3D version of Quarto
• : Quarto Android game against AI or second user
• : Quarto game against the computer
• Quarto: Online Multiplayer Quarto Game
• Quarto: Quarto and other board games
• Quarto at BoardGameGeek
• Quarto at DMOZ
• 414298141056 Quarto Draws Suffice! at MathPages
• Quarto!: Desktop version made in Java.
• Lineo': Windows and Linux version of Quarto with network play and 3D look
• Quarto: Quarto and other Brain Fitness Games
• Quarto (strategy), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 10 October 2000, archived from the original on 12 October 2004, retrieved 12 July 2009