How to play squares

I’m going to teach you how to play squares.

It’s a really simple game which takes no time at all to learn.

It teaches simple tactics and turn taking to children, and is a great way of keeping them occupied in restaurants and doctor’s surgeries.

All you need is paper and pencil. If you have coloured pens, so much the better.

First you need a grid of dots, evenly spaced. To while away the long double Chemistry lessons at school we used to use squared paper so that we could make large grids, but for my children I just draw small ones freehand.

Once the grid is ready, you each take a different coloured pen.

Each player takes it in turns to connect two dots with a line- either horizontally or vertically.

The person who fills in the fourth line around a square marks that square as their own with their initial.

The winner is the person who, when all the lines have been drawn, when all the squares have been claimed, has the most squares.

It requires you to think carefully about which lines you fill in at the start, as the other player may jump in and ‘steal’ your square.