More On Rubik Distance — Guest Post From Toby

Rubik Distance The name probably originates with the player Rubik87; perhaps he was the first to identify and explain the concept. The idea is to express the ‘reach’ of a given piece – how much distance it can cover, combining both horizontal and vertical dimensions. A quasi-mathematical definition is: The sum of the dimensions of… Read More »

Exploring Common Beginner Mistakes

I recently did some work exploring some common beginner mistakes for the website pentolla.com, where I go through a game and single out specific (bad) moves that are common for beginners, explaining what the mistakes are, why they are mistakes, and examples of better moves.  You can take a look at it in one of… Read More »

Games from BBT6

Here are pentobi finals from the BBT6 tournament.  Guiduf won the tournament beating IWK (me) in the finals.  Pentti79 beat norocgogule for 3rd place.   Final game 1: IWK vs Guiduf: here (link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27727822/BBT6/BBT6Final-game1(IWK-vs-gui).blksgf). Final game 2: Guiduf vs IWK: here (link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27727822/BBT6/BBT6Final-game2(gui-vs-IWKJ).blksgf). Little Final game 1: Pentti vs Noroc: here (link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27727822/BBT6/BBT6SmallFinal-game1(pentti-vs-noroc).blksgf). Little Final game 2: Noroc vs Pentti: here (link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27727822/BBT6/BBT6SmallFinal-game2(noroc-vs-pentti).blksgf).

Puzzle 12: Find a hard bonus

In the following game, Blue and Red have secured a big DCCZ and will win the game.  But is a bonus possible?  The answer is yes, but it is hard to find. Note: this puzzle is very difficult.   The puzzle can be found here (link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27727822/Puzzles/12FindRedBonus/FindRedBonusProblem.blksgf) The solution can be found here (link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27727822/Puzzles/12FindRedBonus/FindRedBonusSolution.blksgf) UPDATE: Another… Read More »

What’s the Error? A Case Study From FS2013

On Febuary 5th 2013, a Freestyle game between the 2-time (and currently defending) Freestyle champion, Guiduf, and 2011 Freestyle finalist, Bears34 took place.  Depending on the outcome of the game, one of the players would move on to round 3, and the other would be eliminated from the tournament.  In order for Guiduf to advance,… Read More »

Blokus Palooza 2012 Finals

The Blokus Palooza 2012 finals took place between Mike_Yosuke and ccc33.  Mike won both games, and the tournament.  I have made comments about the games in two separate .blksgf files. The first game of the finals is here (link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27727822/Palooza2012/CCCvsMike-game1.blksgf) The second game of the finals is here (link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27727822/Palooza2012/MikevsCCC-game2.blksgf)

Freestyle 2012 – Final game file

Freestyle Blokus is a variant where one player first chooses the starting pieces for blue and red, and then the other player decides who will play as blue/red, and who will play as yellow/green.  This style of game eliminates (at least mostly) the advantage of going first, and so a “match” typically consists of only… Read More »

Blokus Community Meeting

To all members of the Blokus community: Currently the site has been taken down for reasons that most of you probably at least partially understand.  Many community members have come together to try to act as a single unit, and work to get the website we love back to a usable condition as quickly as… Read More »

Puzzle 11: Secure a DCCZ

In this puzzle, the goal is to play the best blue move (just one) on the current turn to secure a huge zone for blue (and ultimately red as well) on the top.  As well as playing the move, you should make sure you understand WHY the move is very good.  Ultimately I will post… Read More »