My English teacher last semester often brought us a board game to play on "National Skip Days," when there was nothing more he could or needed to teach. He brought a board game called Blokus, a game that none of us had heard of before that moment.

Only a few people seem to like it. But that was probably because a lot of the students were too lazy to use their brains for a board game, and would rather play cards.

Up to four players can play this strategy game. Each player has the same pieces but in different colours; the geometric pieces are formed by small squares. The point is to use these pieces and take over the board and have the least number of squares left. The catch is that your own pieces touches only at the corners; they can never be side by side. It's not an easy game; other members attempt to block off your path to keep you from dominating the board, you try to block them from dominating the board, and you must also try to use as many of your pieces as possible before the board runs out of space!

While I'm not really good at this (I've only played it a few times), I must say it's pretty fun. There's an online version of it at www.blokus.com where you can play with the computers (who are merciless players) or other online players. It's in Java, so it might cause your computer to lag for a bit, but all in all, it's worth it. Try it and tell me what you think of Blokus!

Serena