Board game apparatus and method

#This invention relates to board game apparatuses wherein playing pieces are positioned on a coded patterned game board.

#Games involving the positioning of playing pieces on patterned game boards are known and popular. Many such games involve aligning, encircling or connecting playing pieces in order to score points or otherwise meet a winning objective. Several of these games involve the positioning of coded playing pieces at correspondingly coded positions on the gam board. However, no game apparatuses have apparently been provided for games that require the player to select from a limited number of options which coded playing piece to position at one of multiple possible coded locations on the game board so as to create chains of connected pieces, expand chains, interconnect chains, protect chains from capture by opponents, or take over the chains of opponents.

#The present invention provides a board game apparatus for playing a strategic and entertaining game. A game board and at least two types of playing pieces are provided. The game board is provided with a playing surface which displays a plurality of interconnected first symbols each of which displays a coded marking. Each coded marking is displayed on at least two first symbols on the game board. A plurality of first playing pieces are provided such that at least one first playing piece displays each code marked on a first symbol. Each of two or more players receives a set of distinguishable second playing pieces for placement on the first playing pieces he or she possesses on the game board. Each turn each player places at least one first playing piece on the game board at the first symbol of his or her choice marked with that same code. Players seek to position first playing pieces on first symbols sharing common boundaries, thereby creating chains. When a larger chain is connected to a smaller chain, the player possessing the larger chain gains total possession of the new chain. Thus selection of where to build chains, how to expand them and when to take over opponents' chains are key to increasing a player's possession of first symbols. The strategic dimensions can be further increased by providing third playing pieces that can be played on any turn in the place of a first playing piece. Third playing pieces can be positioned at any unoccupied first symbol and are used to block chain formations, as they occupy a first symbol but allow no player to gain possession of that first symbol and thereby connect a chain through it. The game is over when one player, the winner, has his or her second playing pieces positioned on first playing pieces occupying a majority of the first symbols displayed on the game board.

#FIG. 1 is a plan view of a game board upon which first symbols are directly interconnected;

#FIG. 2 is a plan view of a game board as in FIG. 1 except with a greater number of first symbols some of which are indirectly connected by second symbols;

#FIG. 3 is a plan view of a game board as in FIG. 2 with a greater number of symbols and two types of second symbols;

#Referring to FIG. 1, a game board 20 is provided with a playing surface 22 upon which interconnected first symbols 24, such as the squares shown here, are printed or otherwise displayed. A plurality of the first symbols 24 are positioned in nonoverlapping arrangement over the playing surface 22. The first symbols 24 can be directly interconnected, as shown, meaning that each first symbol 24 is positioned so as to contiguously border, by sharing a mutual boundary 26, at least one other first symbol 24. The first symbols 24 display coded first indicia 28. Each coded first indicium 28 is displayed on at least two of the first symbols 24 on the playing surface 22. By way of illustration, thirty-six first symbols 24 are shown, each of which displays one of eighteen different Arabic numerals that serve as coded first indicia 28. Here, each of the eighteen numerals 28 is displayed on two of the first symbols 24.

#FIG. 2 shows a game board 20 on which some of the first symbols 24 are indirectly connected through second symbols 30. Here, each first symbol 24 is positioned to contiguously border at least two other symbols, at least one of which is another first symbol 24. The first and second symbols 24, 30 are distinguishable one type from the other by an absence of first indicia 28 on the second symbols 30. For example, forty first symbols 24 and five second symbols 30 are shown displayed on this playing surface 22. Each first symbol 24 displays a coded first indicium 28 which is this embodiment takes the form of one of three Arabic numerals 28a combined with one of five color-coded pigments: red 28b, orange 28c, yellow 28d, green 28e, or blue 28f. Each of the resulting fifteen distinguishably coded first indicia 28 is displayed on the playing surface 22 at two or more first symbols 24. The second symbols 30 lack corresponding pigmentation 28b-f and furthermore are not marked with Arabic numerals 28a, and so are collectively distinguished from the various first symbols 24.

#Referring to FIG. 3, the second symbols 30 may display coded second indicia 32 made up of any color, number or symbol code not displayed on the first symbols 24. In this particular embodiment each of eight second symbols 30 displays one of two different words ("BLOCK" or "FREE") that serve as coded second indicia 32. Six of the second symbols 30 display one of the words 32a, and two 30 display the other word 32b. Here each of the first symbols 24 displays a coded first indicium 28 made up of some combination of two geometric shapes 28g, 28h. Each of the resulting sixteen first indicia 28 is displayed on three or more of the first symbols 24.