I like abstract strategy games. I like how so many of them, like Go or Othello, combine simple rules with deep play. They have rules that you can explain in a few sentences yet possibilities that can take years to explore. I enjoy the way that they stretch my mind.

However, as a rule, most abstract strategy games are pretty dry. While I enjoy them, they generally don’t have the same fun factor as a game like Carcassonne or Settlers. You don’t have a lot of laughter or casual chatter over a Chess board. An exception to this rule is Blokus.

I can get people who run away from a Hex board excited with Blokus. A lot of that comes from how much fun the pieces themselves are. Semi-transparent pieces that look like Tetris shapes on a silver board just look plain nifty. However, those pieces are used to play a game that is as simple to learn and as deep to play as any member of the GIPF Project. As a side note, I am waiting for a band to name itself after the GIPF Project.

However, Blokus also happens to be an awkward-sized game. The board itself is large enough that it doesn’t fit into the average sized backpack. At least not if you want to stuff anything else into it. As someone who hauls most of his games to other people’s homes, this is a serious drawback.

Travel Blokus, also known as Blokus Duo, solves that problem. While the regular Blokus uses a 20 by 20 grid, Travel Blokus uses a 14 by 14 grid. It also plays only two players, as opposed to the two to four player options that regular Blokus has. The grid and the pieces are also slightly smaller than the original, which means you can mix and match the pieces.

In Travel Blokus, each player has 21 pieces in either purple or orange. Each pieces is made of up of one to five squares and is slotted to fit onto the grid. No two shapes in a player’s set are the same. Each player has a dot on one of the squares near the middle of the grid. The first piece they place must go on that dot, as opposed to starting on a corner the way regular Blokus is played.

On a player’s turn, they place of their pieces on the board. It must touch one of their previously placed pieces on the corner but it cannot touch the sides of any of their own pieces. As long as they fit on the grid, you can orient the pieces anyway you feel like, turning them and flipping them. If they only touch corners, it’s all good.

The object of the game is to place as many of your own pieces on the board while making sure that you prevent your opponent from doing the same. If you run out of possible moves before your opponent, you pass while they get to merrily continue to fill up the board.

You get a point for every square you fill on the board. If you manage to use all of your pieces, then you will get an extra fifteen points. If the last piece you used to fill the board was your single one-square piece, that’ll net you an extra five points. I generally just count up the number of squares in the unused pieces to figure out negative scoring.

In general, Blokus is a good game and Travel Blokus builds on those strengths. By having players start almost in the middle of the board, they start off in each other’s faces. This only heightens the conflict and aggression. Since you can cross through your opponent’s diagonals, thanks to placement rules, the board will quickly become an interlocking web of orange and purple. Travel Blokus can be a beautifully vicious game.

As mentioned before, Blokus does a good job combining fun with thinking. The game is physically fun to play with the neat plastic pieces that are enjoyable to handle and play with. The rules, while simple to learn, allow for a multitude of possibilities to play while exploring offensive expansion and defensive blocking. Travel Blokus has all of these traits, combined with even tighter play and a much more portable board.

I am happy to have both regular Blokus and Travel Blokus in my collection. Travel Blokus, though, will see more play just because it is so much easier for me to travel with. As an abstract strategy game for two, it gets top marks from me.