How to Play Quoridor: Tips and Strategies for Beginners

# How to Play Quoridor: Tips and Strategies for Beginners

Quoridor on Pokky Game is a race between two pawns. Yours starts in the middle of one edge. You win by reaching any square on the far edge. The race is nine rows long. Each turn you either take one step, or spend one of your ten walls to send the other pawn the long way round.

The game is free in the browser. No account, and nothing to install. Play a friend on the same screen, or the computer at one of three strengths. Press Start Game to begin.

1. What Is Quoridor?

It is a board game of walls and footwork. A turn is one thing or the other. Step a single square up, down, left, or right, or lay one wall. You cannot do both, and you cannot pass.

Every wall is two squares long and sits in the groove between squares. Walls may not overlap along their own line, and they may not cross a wall that is already there. You can never seal a pawn in. Whatever you build, both players must still have a route to their own goal. A wall that closes a route completely is refused, and the turn is still yours.

2. How to Play Quoridor

Open the game and press Start Game.

- Step. Tap a glowing dot to move your pawn onto that square. On a keyboard, the arrow keys step without aiming.
- Choose the wall. Across and Upright on the bar set which way the next wall lies. Right-click the board, or press R, to switch.
- Lay the wall. Tap a gap between squares. The wall sits in that gap, the way the bar says.
- Take it back. Press U, or the arrow button. Against the computer, that also steps back over the computer’s reply.

On a phone, tap the dot to step and tap a gap to place the wall.

Example: The other pawn is one row from home, and you still have a wall. Lay it across the groove in front of them. Their shortest route gets longer. Your next turn can be the step that keeps you ahead.

3. Understanding the Rules

- Each pawn begins in the middle of its own edge. The first pawn to reach any square on the far edge wins.
- A turn is a single step or a single wall.
- You have ten walls, and no more. When they are gone, every remaining turn has to be a step.
- Walls are two squares long. They cannot overlap or cross.
- No wall may leave either pawn with no route to its goal. Lengthening a journey is allowed. Closing it off is not.
- Standing face to face, you jump the other pawn and land on the square beyond. If a wall or the edge of the board blocks that landing, you slip round to either side.

4. Beginner Tips and Strategies

- Count both journeys before every turn. The scoreboard shows each pawn’s shortest route. The player with the lower number is usually the one who is winning.
- A wall that adds two steps to your rival and nothing to you is worth more than one that adds four to them and three to you. A wall belongs to the board. It can slow you as well.
- Lay a wall beside a route they have already committed to. A wall dropped far ahead is stepped around in a move or two.
- Keep a couple of walls back. Running out while they still hold several is close to losing, because you can no longer answer a run for the finish.
- When the two routes are the same length and it is your turn, a step is often stronger than a wall. You reach the edge first.
- Use the jump when you meet in the middle. Landing beyond them is sometimes faster than walking round.

5. Common Mistakes to Avoid

- Spending most of your ten walls in the opening. Later, when they run, you have only steps left.
- Laying a wall that lengthens your own route as much as theirs. Check the scoreboard before you tap the gap.
- Trying to wall them in completely. The board refuses it, and you have used the moment you could have stepped.
- Placing a wall far in front of a pawn that can simply walk around it.
- Building when the routes are equal and it is your turn. The step wins the race. The wall gives them the next move.
- Forgetting the jump. Nose to nose, with an empty square behind them, you can go straight over.

6. How to Reach the Far Edge

Watch the two numbers on the scoreboard. If yours is lower, step. If theirs is lower, spend a wall that adds steps to them and leaves yours alone. If the numbers match, step.

Save at least two walls for the last rows. That is when a single wall in front of their pawn decides who arrives first. If you meet them in the center, jump over rather than detour, unless a wall is already sitting on the landing square. Then slip to the side.

7. Play Quoridor Online on Pokky Game

Press Start Game. Take a step if your number is the lower one. Spend a wall only when it makes their route longer and leaves yours the same.

8. Another game on the same site

If you would rather move pieces with a friend on one screen, Checkers is on Pokky Game too. Twelve men each, jumps, and kings, against the computer or the person beside you.

More of the collection is on Pokky Game.