Abstract strategy games are underrepresented in these pages. The reason is simple: I don't play them very much. I enjoy many of them, but it's difficult to find opponents for them. Often people aren't in the mood for the level of thought and concentration that abstract strategy games frequently require. Since I rarely get to play them, I rarely buy them. As a result, I almost missed a pair of games which I've already played more often than most other abstract games I own.
The first game is Quarto! The board and all sixteen pieces are made from durable hardwood and are as attractive as they are functional. As the name suggests, Quarto! has everything to do with the number four. The pieces have four different attributes: height (short/tall), color (dark/light), shape (round/square), and solidity (solid/hollow). Each possible attribute pair occurs four times (so there are four tall dark pieces, four tall light pieces, etc) and each possible four-attribute combination occurs exactly once to yield the sixteen playing pieces. The goal of the game is to get four pieces in a row (or in a square if using the advanced rules, which I recommend) which share the same attribute (e.g. four dark pieces, four short pieces, etc).
Players take turns placing pieces on any vacant space on the board. Once placed, a piece can never be moved. Of course, there's a nice twist thrown in to differentiate Quarto! from other n-in-a-row games: players don't choose their own pieces. On a player's turn, her opponent hands her any unplayed piece and the player must place that piece on the board.
This simple device results in some unusual game play. We tend to spend the early part of the game setting up potential wins, and then spend the rest of the game trying to block them! In most games like this, the strategy is to set up a two-pronged attack so that if your opponent blocks one, you can win with the other. But in Quarto, your opponent can just avoid giving your the piece you need to win. The key, of course, is setting things up so that no matter what piece your opponent gives you, you'll be able to use it to win. We haven't played enough to determine if good players will always draw.
Quarto looks great on a coffee table (it's been sitting on mine since it arrived). Its rules are simple to teach and the game takes under a half hour to play, which explains why it's received as much action around here as it has.