Family game
Quoridor
Race your pawn across the board while walls rise in your way
- 2–4best with 2
- 10–20 minper game
- Under a minuteto set up
- 8+years
- Very easy
- Nonereading
The official edition, on Amazon.in
There's no Indian edition, so this is the official imported game. Amazon shows today's price, the seller and delivery.
Paid link. We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
The game in a nutshell
Quoridor is a quick wooden strategy game for 2 or 4 players: you race your pawn to the far side of a 9 x 9 board, and on any turn you can place a wall instead to lengthen your opponent's route. There's no luck and the rules take five minutes, so it suits children from 8, parents and grandparents alike, and makes a good two-player game for couples. Our link goes to Gigamic's original all-wood set, an import, since there is no Indian edition.
Is Quoridor right for you?
Great if
- Two-player games between a parent and child, grandparents and grandchildren, or couples
- Children from about 8 who like puzzles and planning ahead
- A 15-minute game after dinner, or between longer games at a get-together
- A gift: the solid wooden set looks good on a shelf or coffee table
Skip it if
- You want luck, laughter and big groups; this is a quiet, head-to-head thinking game
- Someone in your group hates being blocked; walling each other in is the whole game
- You usually play with three: the rules are for two or four players only
A place on the honours list
Good company to be in.
Recognition from beyond our table.
Mensa Select, 1997 (Winner)
Grand Prix du Jouet (France), 1997 (Winner)
Parents' Choice Gold Award (USA), 1997 (Winner)
Games Magazine Game of the Year (USA), 1998 (Winner)
How Quoridor plays
Set-up: put the wooden board between you. In a two-player game each player puts a pawn on the middle square of their own edge and takes 10 walls; with four players, each pawn starts in the middle of one side and each player takes 5 walls. Draw lots to see who starts.
- Time to teach: about 5 minutes.
- Reading and language: Nothing to read during play. The rules leaflet is multilingual (English included) and short enough to explain in Hindi or any language in a few minutes.
Quoridor - How To Play · Watch It Played
Choose a video · Watch right here
If this creator doesn’t allow embedded playback, watch on YouTube ↗.
Your turn, step by step
- 1Move
Move your pawn one square forward, back, left or right, jumping over a pawn that stands face to face with yours.
- 2Block
Or place one of your walls to lengthen your opponent's route, but always leave them a way through.
- 3Win
The first pawn to reach any square on the opposite edge of the board wins.
The full explanation: how a game of Quoridor goes
A turn: do one thing. Either move your pawn one square forward, back, left or right, or place one wall in the grooves so that it blocks the path across two squares. Walls stay where they are for the rest of the game, and once your walls run out you can only move.
Two rules to remember: you can never shut someone in completely, so there must always be a way through to their goal line. And when two pawns stand face to face with no wall between them, you may jump over the other pawn; if a wall stands behind it, you step to its left or right instead.
How you win: the first pawn to reach any of the nine squares on the opposite edge wins. Most games last 10 to 20 minutes.
Tips and variants: don't spend your walls too early, because a wall placed late, when your opponent's route is clear, can add many steps at once. Gigamic's teaching sheet suggests a two-against-two team game with 5 walls each, and for younger children a smaller 7 x 7 or 5 x 5 area of the board.
What's in the box
- 1Wooden game board
81 squares (9 x 9) with grooves for the walls and two wall-storage slots - 20Wooden walls
10 each in a two-player game, 5 each with four - 4Wooden pawns
one per player - 1Cloth storage bag
for keeping the pieces together - 1Rules leaflet
Multilingual, English included
Box: 28 × 28 × 6 cm, 1.08 kg. Handy to know for gifting and travel.
From Gigamic's French and English product pages, its export catalogue and its rules leaflet (10-2016) for the standard full-size Quoridor. The Mini has the same pieces in a smaller size; Quoridor Pac-Man adds a Pac-Man pawn, ghost pawns and bonus tokens.
Where to buy
The official edition, on Amazon.in
There's no Indian edition, so this is the official imported game. Amazon shows today's price, the seller and delivery.
Opens Amazon.in in a new tab.
Quoridor is published by Gigamic, a French company, and there is no Indian edition: India isn't on Gigamic's list of countries where it localises the game, and we found no Indian distributor. So the Gigamic sets sold here are imports. Our Amazon.in link goes to a listing titled for Gigamic's Quoridor, the standard full-size wooden set for 2 to 4 players.
How to make sure you get a genuine copyA little care before you click.
- The box names Gigamic and shows the Quoridor name; the rules leaflet credits 'a concept of Mirko Marchesi' and gives Gigamic's address in Wimereux, France.
- Check the contents: a solid wooden board with 81 squares and grooves for the walls, two wall-storage slots along its edges, 20 wooden walls, 4 wooden pawns, a cloth bag and a multilingual rules leaflet.
- Check the size: the full set comes in a square box about 28 x 28 x 6 cm and weighs about 1.1 kg. The Mini's box is 18 x 18 x 4 cm.
- Wooden 'wall', 'corridor' or 'maze' strategy games sold without the Gigamic or Quoridor name are generic versions of the same idea. They may play the same, but the wood, finish and piece counts vary, and they aren't Gigamic's set.
- An unusually cheap 'Quoridor' that doesn't name Gigamic is a warning sign.
We link to one Amazon.in listing that we've checked against the maker's own information. We don't show prices: Amazon shows today's price, the seller and delivery. Paid link. We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
What reviewers and players say
Reviewers agree that Quoridor takes minutes to learn and about 15 minutes to play, and that Gigamic's all-wood set feels solid and looks good on a table. The real game is deciding when to move and when to spend one of your ten walls, and players say it grows deeper the more you play the same opponent; a family review found it good for building critical thinking. The complaints are that the blocking and backtracking can feel mean or frustrating, early games can feel samey, and four-player games can turn into ganging up on the leader. Three players is best avoided.
What people love
- Quick to learn and quick to play
- Solid wooden pieces, with no cheap plastic
- Depth that grows as you play the same opponent
- Works for children and adults at the same table
Common complaints
- Blocking and backtracking can feel mean or frustrating
- Early games can feel repetitive until players learn the tactics
- Four-player games can turn into ganging up on one player
Based on 6 reviews and discussions
- Review Quoridor [Micro] (What's Eric Playing?, January 2023) · What's Eric Playing?
- Review Quoridor game review (Lisa, October 2022) · What's Good To Do
- Review Trapped in a Quoridor? (Trent, November 2009) · The Board Game Family
- Players Quoridor: change the number of walls (tomoyuki and others, May 2015) · Board Game Arena forum
- Award Quoridor: history and awards · Wikipedia
- Award Quoridor product page, awards list · Gigamic
Summarised in our own words from the sources above. We don't use Amazon reviews or ratings.
More like Quoridor
Our picks if Quoridor isn't quite right
| Feature |
Quoridor |
Othello |
Blokus |
Chess |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | 2–4 | 2 | 2–4 | 2 |
| Best with | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Play time | 10–20 min | 15–30 min | 20–30 min | 10–60 min |
| Age | 8+ | 8+ | 7+ | 5+ |
| Rules | Easy | Easy | Easy | Medium |
| Indian edition | Import | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Why look at it | This page | Another quick, luck-free two-player game that is easy to learn and hard to master | Block your rivals on a shared board, for 2 to 4 players | The deeper two-player strategy classic, for when Quoridor feels too quick |
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Connect 4
Drop discs, block your rival and get four in a row
Othello
Trap a line of discs, flip them to your colour
Strike 4
Drop discs, block your rival and line up four first
Tic Tac Toe
Three in a row wins: every child's first strategy game
Questions people ask about Quoridor
How do you play Quoridor?
On your turn, either move your pawn one square or place a wall to slow your opponent. Pawns go around walls, and you may never block someone in completely. The first to reach the opposite side of the board wins.
Can 3 people play Quoridor?
The official rules are for two or four players. With three, the pawns don't face each other evenly, so one player gets an easier route; most players avoid it. With four, each player gets 5 walls instead of 10.
Can you move diagonally in Quoridor?
Normally no: pawns move one square forward, back, left or right. The exception is when two pawns stand face to face: you may jump over the other pawn, and if a wall stands behind it, you step to its left or right instead, which takes you diagonally past it.
Is the wooden 'wall game' sold online the same as Quoridor?
Many wooden wall-and-pawn games sold online copy Quoridor's board and rules without the Gigamic name. Quoridor itself was designed by Mirko Marchesi and published by the French company Gigamic in 1997, and its box names both. The copies can play the same way, but the wood, finish and piece counts vary.
What age is Quoridor for?
Gigamic says 8 and up for the full game, and its teaching sheet suggests a simplified version on a smaller part of the board from about 6. For younger children, Gigamic's Quoridor Junior is a gentler, picture-themed version of the same idea.
Game facts
- Designed by
- Mirko Marchesi
- Publisher
- Gigamic
- First published
- 1997
- Players
- 2–4
- Language
- No reading – Nothing to read during play. The rules leaflet is multilingual (English included) and short enough to explain in Hindi or any language in a few minutes.
- Box size and weight
- 28 × 28 × 6 cm, 1.08 kg
- Awards
- Mensa Select, 1997 (Winner); Grand Prix du Jouet (France), 1997 (Winner); Parents' Choice Gold Award (USA), 1997 (Winner); Games Magazine Game of the Year (USA), 1998 (Winner)
Sources & photo creditsThe references behind this guide.
Facts on this page come from the publisher, the Indian maker or distributor, and the sources below. Photos are credited under each one.
- Gigamic - Quoridor (English product page)
- Gigamic - Quoridor (French product page: contents, box size, awards)
- Gigamic export catalogue - Quoridor (contents, box size, countries)
- Gigamic - Quoridor rules (10-2016, multilingual PDF)
- Gigamic - Quoridor educational sheet (English PDF)
- Gigamic - Quoridor Junior
- Gigamic - Quoridor Pac-Man
- Gigamic - Quoridor Mini
- Wikipedia - Quoridor