MORE DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS

THE PUZZLE

What you use:

The 12 coloured plastic pentominoes
The puzzle lists - 'Grand Chelem', 'Super Chelem, 'Challenge'
The puzzleboard
The divider for changing the playing area on the puzzleboard

Basic object of the puzzle

To make a series of varying size rectangles - or 'PENTA' - using four or more of the pentominoes on the adjustable board. The bigger the PENTA the harder it gets!

Important Rule

All of the pentominoes can be placed in any revolution or rotation on the board except Pentomino no.1 [the straight piece] which can only be placed HORIZONTALLY.

Worked example with row A of the 'Grand Chelem' combination list

Position the divider vertically in the slot to the right of '4' on the board to make the 4x5 rectangle. Take the first four pentominoes indicated on the list at on row A. That is numbers: 2, 4, 5 and 8, now fit them into the penta! Easy eh?

Make it a little more difficult

Next, move the divider up one notch to the right of the '5', keeping your original four pentominoes, pick out pentomino No.7 [as indicated by Column 5, Row A] to make five pieces. Now solve penta 5!

Progress further up the board, taking each additional pentomino in turn as indicated by Row A until you have solved penta 11. You can do the same for each Line - A through to L.

Once you have solved every one of the 96 penta combinations on the Grand Chelem list you will have completed the Grand Slam!

Other possibilities for puzzles

1. Solve the '12' rows of the 'Super Chelem' (84 combinations) or the '40' rows of the 'Challenge' (160 combinations).

2. Choose your pentominoes at random from the 12 to solve a particular sized rectangle. There are over 36,000 combinations!

3. There are four different shapes that you can make for the for the 12 together, as seen in Fig.1 below.

4. There are over 2,000 ways of putting all 12 shapes into the 12x5 grid!

5. Print out and complete the activity challenges!

6. A three times two-dimensional scale model of every pentomino can be made using nine others, as seen in Fig.2 below.

7. Use all 12 pentominoes to make two-dimensional animal figures and geometric shapes, as seen in Fig.5 below.

THE GAME FOR 2 TO 4 PLAYERS

What you use;

The 12 coloured plastic pentominoes
The chessboard found on the back of the puzzle list

Principals of the game

Each player takes a pentomino and places it on the chessboard in turn. The winner is the last player to be able to place a piece. Players can play in pairs, the aim being to block your opponents while leaving a move for your partner. The game will last between 5 and 10 minutes.

Fundamental rules

1. The first piece placed on the board MUST cover one of the four squares that surround the centre point. See Fig.3 for an example.

2. Each piece placed after that MUST touch at least one of the corners of a piece already on the board. See Fig.4 for an example.

Variations

Instead of taking pentominoes one at a time from a shared pile, they can be divided up before the game begins. One method is to allocate all ODD pentominoes to one player (or team) and all the EVEN pentominoes to the other player (or team).