Quarto has a small vocabulary, and knowing it makes strategy easier to talk about. The key terms are the gift (the piece you hand your opponent), a safe piece (one they can't win with), a threat (three matching pieces and a gap), a dead line (one nobody can win) and the squeeze (leaving your opponent nothing safe to give). Below are 18 terms in alphabetical order, each with a link to where it's covered in depth.
About us: we make Quads, a game built on the same mechanic as Quarto and not affiliated with Gigamic. These terms apply to both games.
ABCD
1
2
3
4
Terms A to Z
- Attribute (trait)
- One of the four ways a piece can differ: height (tall or short), colour (dark or light), shape (round or square) and top (solid or hollow). Each piece has one version of each, and each version appears on 8 of the 16 pieces. Read more.
- Dead line
- A line whose pieces already share no trait at all, for example one that holds a piece and its opposite. Nobody can ever win it, so it can be ignored for the rest of the game.
- Draw
- The result when all 16 pieces are placed and no winning shape was completed. Classic Quarto is a draw with perfect play. Read more.
- First placer
- The player who puts the first piece on the board. Their opponent chose that piece, so the first placer is the player who did not choose first.
- Gift (hand-off)
- The piece you choose for your opponent at the end of your turn. They must place it on their turn. The heart of the game: you never choose the piece you place.
- Impartial game
- A game in which both players have exactly the same moves available. Quarto is impartial because both players use one shared set of pieces. Read more.
- Line
- Four cells in a row, column or long diagonal. A 4×4 board has 10: 4 rows, 4 columns and 2 diagonals.
- Opposite
- The one piece that shares no trait with a given piece. Every piece has exactly one, such as tall dark square solid and short light round hollow. Read more.
- Perfect information
- Both players can see everything that affects the game. In Quarto that's the board and every piece left. There's nothing hidden and nothing random.
- Quarto!
- What a player announces to claim a win in the board game, once they place the fourth piece of a matching line. Quarto is also the game itself, invented by Blaise Müller and published by Gigamic in 1991. Read more.
- Safe piece
- A piece your opponent cannot win with anywhere on the current board. Before every hand-off, the question is which pieces are still safe. Read more.
- Solved
- Worked out completely with perfect play. Luc Goossens solved Quarto by computer in 1998: a draw. Read more.
- Square (2×2 square)
- Four cells forming a 2×2 block. In the square variant, and always in Quads, four matching pieces in a square also win. There are 9 squares on the board. Read more.
- Squeeze
- A move that leaves your opponent with no safe piece to give back. You place and hand over a safe piece, and wherever they put it, every remaining piece wins for you. Read more.
- Symmetry
- A rearrangement of the board that maps every winning shape onto a winning shape, so it changes nothing about the position. The classic board has 32. With 2×2 squares it has 8. Read more.
- Threat (open line)
- A shape with three pieces that share a trait and one empty cell. Any piece with that trait wins there. A threat on one trait can be finished by 5 of the other 13 pieces, a threat on two traits by 9. Read more.
- Unsafe piece
- A piece that would let your opponent win immediately if you handed it over. Late in a game, every piece left can be unsafe.
- Winning shape
- Any group of four cells that wins when filled with pieces sharing a trait. Classic Quarto has 10, the lines. With squares there are 19. Read more.
Frequently asked questions
What does "Quarto!" mean in the game?
It is what you announce to claim a win after placing the fourth piece of a line whose pieces share a trait.
What is a safe piece in Quarto?
A piece your opponent cannot win with anywhere on the current board.
What is a squeeze in Quarto?
A move that leaves your opponent with no safe piece to hand back, so they are forced to give you a winning piece.