Backgammon Checkers Chess Mancala

Mastermind Reversi / Othello Solitaire

Other Abstract Board Games

Abalone  BUY NOW  $25.99

Abalone takes only a few short minutes to learn--and it's never the same game twice. Just move your marbles toward your opponent, outnumber him, and force him off the board! Although Abalone can be learned easily by players of almost any age, advanced game players can enjoy the challenge of its strategies. And Abalone can be played anywhere--indoors or out. A great-playing strategy game like this comes along only once in a lifetime! Also available: Abalone Travel Edition.

This terrific German import is like two player Chinese Checkers but with a very nasty twist. You have to get your ten marbles from the far side of the board to your side so that they occupy the places your opponents marbles started on. A marble can jump in any direction over any number of marbles of any color to the first vacant space beyond. But a marble may only move horizontal to the next adjacent space. The board rests on a fulcrum, and before each move, the Balanx board is tilted in the direction of the opponent. As a result, the 20 solid glass marbles roll into new and interesting positions. The winner will be the player who can keep his eye on the rapidly changing situation, and move his marbles to his finishing corner.

Blokus is a maddeningly simple game! The basic strategy is to place all your tiles on the game board while trying to block your opponents from placing their tiles. The rules are simple: blue goes first, followed by yellow, then red and finally green. The first player (blue) places any piece of their choice in it’s home corner. Each color plays in turn. Two pieces of the same color must touch at their corners, but they cannot touch along their sides. When there is no piece left of a color that can be played, that color is considered “abandoned”. When all the colors are abandoned, the winner is the person (or team) with the highest score. Players score one point for each square covered, 15 bonus points if they manage to use all their tiles, and 5 more points if the last piece played is the single square. Also available: Blokus Travel Edition.

Imagine yourself living during Medieval Times, the period of history referred to as the Middle Ages. The Roman Empire had recently collapsed and the Renaissance era had not yet begun. Medieval towns cropped up throughout Western Europe. The Cathedral, a place of sanctuary and worship, was the focal point of the city and located in the center of town. Shops and various trading stores surrounded the Cathedral, while residents and shop keepers lived within the stone walls which formed the town boundary. What went on within these walls was dictated by rich and powerful landowners. In the game of Cathedral, you are such a landowner. The playing board represents the site of the walled city. Two sets of playing pieces symbolize both the buildings and the two opposing forces who battle to gain control by strategically positioning their building pieces back on the board. In this award-winning game of competition and rivalry, victory goes to the player who is best at blocking and out-maneuvering their opponent. Also available: Cathedral - Wooden Edition.

Build to make your view of the city match your aspirations. Secretly plan the shape of this city from its primary view on your side. Then take turns building it to meet your plan, and/or thwart your opponent. This is a game of correctly anticipating other players' hidden agendas. A quick family game to play over and over again. It challenges you to achieve your secret goals and second-guess your opponent's actions, as you build competing views of a city.

Simple to the eye, but perhaps a lifetime in mastering, Dao is a pure game of strategy that plays out with opposing sets of four pieces on a 4 X 4 playing square. At each turn, move any one piece in any direction of your choosing—vertically, horizontally, or diagonally—as far as you can go until you reach the end of a playing square or another play piece. Win by arranging your pieces in a vertical or horizontal line, by occupying a 2 x 2 square, by occupying all four corners, or by becoming trapped in any one corner by three of your opponent’s pieces. This elegant, endlessly challenging game is great for all ages 8 and up, and includes game mat, 8 play pieces and drawstring sack, instructions, storage tube, and game tin.

Da Vinci's Challenge is the ancient game of secret symbols! This classic strategy game contains mysteries as old as the pyramids. The pattern of circles on the game board forms the ancient symbol called the Flower of Life, inscribed on Pyramid walls by the Egyptians over 6,000 years ago and studied in depth by Leonardo Da Vinci. The timeless symbol that has inspired artists and thinkers over the ages creates a playing surface that is both beautiful and intriguing. Players take turns placing game pieces on the board to form 9 different patterns. The more complex the pattern, the higher the point value. The player who scores the most points in the end wins!

DVONN is a challenging stacking game with very simple rules. It is played with 3 red DVONN pieces, 23 white pieces, and 23 black pieces. The players must try to control as many pieces as possible by building stacks, preferably by jumping on top of their opponent's pieces. While doing so, pieces and stacks must remain linked to the red DVONN pieces. If not, they are out of the game! When no more moves can be made, each player puts their stacks on top of each other. The player with the highest stack wins the game!

A Mystic Struggle for a Great Line of Power! Capture three islands in a row, by controlling three points in a row on each. A strategic, move-and-place game with shifting strategies, that increases in complexity until one player wins. There is a minimum of 9 moves each, and a maximum of 24 moves for each player. A new move gives depth and fluidity to this game of few rules, on a board of extraordinary symmetry.

Ingenious is an amazing game for one to four brains! Are you ingenious? You are when playing this extraordinary game! Combining fun game-play, great components, and real strategy, Ingenious will have you quickly addicted. Developed by acclaimed game designer Reiner Kniza, this game features simple rules, quick playing time, and a clever scoring system that makes this one game you won't want to miss. Ingenious is a Mensa Mind Game of the Year Winner for 2005.

In Isolate players can experience the strategy of separation! Grab your color tiles, arrange them on the game board, and isolate your tiles first to win! Simple to learn, but challenging enough for experienced competitors. Isolate is perfect for the entire family! Contents of Isolate: 16 tiles, Gameboard, Instructions.

Win the Race Across a Growing Maze... Replace tiles to create paths for your runners and send them in a punctuated journey across the board. Place your pieces, plan your paths and race to the finish! Fascinating and fun for the family.

Outfox is an easy-to-learn game with a twist. The goal is to form a row of three pieces, either three shapes in one color, or one shape in three colors. The twist is that as each piece is placed the piece next to it must slide to a new position. Each move presents a whole new set of possibilities!

The aim of the game is to line up 4 of your balls in a row. But hold on a minute! A player cannot move a ball individually or with a ball of their own color. Moves MUST be made with an adjoining ball of their opponent's! The two balls are then moved together as a single unit, in any direction. Simple rules, intricate play.

Shift the Spheres to Form a Triangle in the Ruins of the Pyramids. A fun and easy to learn game in which a winning triangle pattern is formed by moving balls along passages under the Great Pyramids. Quadtria is a casual, easily understood, yet compelling game, where strategy shifts like desert sand and a watchful initiative is essential.

A 2-person strategy game with 3- and 4-player variations, the rules take 2 minutes to learn, while the play variety is endless. Games average 10-20 minutes, and the wooden board and playing pieces are strikingly handsome. Easy for children to learn and play, opponents create a maze to impede but not trap their opponent. A good game is a series of strategically crucial moves, often leading to an exciting race to the finish. Also available: Quoridor Magnetic Travel Edition, Quoridor Wooden Travel Edition.

Quarto has received a Parent's Choice Award, Game of the Year award in Italy, MENSA's Top 5 Games Award, Toy Testing Council Award and a Prize of Excellence award. This game moves along quickly. You win by getting four in a row of color, shape or height of pieces. The twist is your opponent picks which piece you must play next. A game for two players. A wonderful gift for the thinking person. A Software Version of Quarto is also available, as well as Quarto Travel Edition.

This is a simple-to-play but hard-to-master strategy game. Players place and move cubes in order to rearrange the play area, so they have 5 of their own cubes in a row. Quixo plays like a very advanced version of Tic Tac Toe where one tries to get five in a row. The game can be learned in a few minutes and moves along quickly. Quixo has received a Parent's Choice Award, Games Magazine Best Strategy Game Award, a Gold Award from the International Festival of Games/Cannes and a MENSA's Top 5 Games Award.

Rumis is an exciting game of three-dimensional strategy based on the amazing architecture of the ancient Inca! In the game of Rumis (meaning "stones" in ancient Quechua) players begin constructing a building one stone at a time, strategically placing their stones to prevent opponents from having the most visible colored stones. Construction is limited by the shape and height of the building and by the number of players. Each stone placed must touch at least one face of the same color, but not extend beyond the plan’s height limitations. The player with the most stones visible from above at the end is the winner! Rumis is a winner of the National Competition Award from Mensa Select.

Think 3-D to win as you tilt, tip and roll! This strategy game’s unique, nonlinear moves keep students thinking ahead. Move wooden pyramids to surround and capture your opponent's. Think 3-D to win as you cross the real suede board. 12 wooden playing pieces and 10" suede game board. 2 players. Ages 8 to adult.

Draw a glass stone from the pouch and play it onto the beautiful solid wood board of this Mensa Award Game. You must play in the same row or column as your opponent's last stone. Get three stones of your color in a row and you score. This game is an innovative variation on the classic 3-in-a-row challenge; create a complex strategy of offensive and defensive moves to form 3-in-a-rows while trying to prevent your opponent from doing the same. Winner of the Parents' Choice award and the Games Magazine "Games 100" award.

Zčrtz is played with 5 white, 7 gray and 9 black marbles and 37 round tiles. The tiles are used to assemble the board; the marbles are in a pool. Each turn you must place one marble on the board and then remove a free tile. The aim is to capture 3 white, 4 gray, 5 black marbles or 2 marbles of each color. To capture you must jump with a marble over another marble. It sounds easy, but both players play with the same marbles and the board gets smaller with every move. Thus, the players are forced toward a situation where every move is a crucial one... when you create a trap for your opponent at the wrong moment, you may find yourself caught in the trap.