Highly awarded · 2 organizations

Qwirkle

Susan McKinley Ross · MindWare · 2006

Match wooden tiles by color or shape in a Scrabble-like grid. Place tiles to extend lines of matching attributes, scoring points for each line you contribute to. A Qwirkle — completing a line of all six — earns bonus points. Elegant abstract strategy for all ages.

Players

2–4

Time

45 min

Ages

Difficulty

Light

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Why you'll like it

Wooden tiles are satisfying to handle
Rules are immediately intuitive
Works across generations — kids to grandparents
Strong spatial reasoning exercise
No language dependence

How it plays

Qwirkle is a tile game a bit like Scrabble but with colors and shapes instead of letters. Each tile has one of six shapes in one of six colors. On your turn you place tiles in a line where all share either the same color or the same shape, with no duplicates.

You score a point for every tile in each line you add to, and completing a line of six earns a Qwirkle bonus. It's quick to learn and works for all ages.