Corner Claim

emoji_eventsGoal

Four colours, twenty-one pieces each, and one rule that decides everything: two pieces of your colour may never share a side, but must always meet at a corner. You are trying to get rid of all eighty-nine of your squares, and you score against whatever you are left holding.

sports_esportsHow to Play

• Each colour opens in its own corner of the board
• After that, every piece you lay must touch a corner of one of your own — and must not touch a side of one
• Other colours do not constrain you at all; you may lie right alongside them
• A piece may be turned and flipped over any way you like before it goes down
• When you have nowhere left to play, you are out and the others carry on
• Keyboard: arrows move the piece, R turns it, F flips it, Space places it, Z undoes

gavelRules

• The first piece of a colour must cover that colour's own starting corner
• Every piece after it must meet one of your own pieces corner to corner
• No piece of yours may ever share a side with another piece of yours
• Sharing sides with the other three colours is fine and often the point
• A piece once laid is never moved or taken
• The game ends when nobody can play

lightbulbTips

• Play your big pieces early. They are hardest to place later, and every square you are still holding at the end is a point against you
• Head for the middle. The corners run out of room quickly, and a colour that spends its pieces along its own edges is boxed in while the board is still half empty
• Every piece you lay should open new corners for you — count how many it leaves you rather than how it looks
• A piece that blocks a corner your neighbour needs is worth as much as one that opens a corner for you; the two are the same move seen from either side
• Keep the single square for last. Playing every piece is worth fifteen, and finishing on that one is worth five more

infoGame Over

Each colour loses a point for every square still in hand, so the scores are usually below zero and the winner is whoever was left holding the least. Getting rid of all twenty-one pieces is worth fifteen, and doing it with the single square last is worth another five.