Welcome to Square Off!

Square Off presents you with a diamond-shaped board filled with numbers and operators (+ and -). Your job is to create a path along the board by clicking on adjacent squares to alternate between numbers and operators to create an equation which adds up to a given "target" number.

Once you submit your equation by clicking "DONE" you will get points if your equation adds up to the target number, or lose points if you were wrong. The board then resets with new numbers, operators and a new target and the process repeats. After 2 minutes the game ends.

Points

The point value of each target is labeled "AT RISK". Every time you correctly build an equation faster than the previous, one your "AT RISK" points increase. If you build the wrong equation or take longer than the previous one, your "AT RISK" points decrease. In other words, the faster you answer correctly the more your next target is worth, and the slower you answer (or if you get an answer wrong) the less your next target is worth.

Options

If you're stuck, click "Pass" to get a new board and target. You don't lose points for doing this, but you do lose time!

If you've created a long equation and decide it's wrong and want to start again without changing the board or the target, click "Clear". You don't lose points for doing this, but you do lose time!

History of Square Off

Square Off is an educational math game originally featured on the PRODIGY® service. While I have made every attempt to reproduce Square Off as accurately as possible on this website, I have made some changes to accommodate the differences between the original Prodigy software and today's World Wide Web. In some cases I have left out features while in other cases I have added them.

Phases and Bonus Blocks

Wondering what happened to Phase 1, Phase 2 and bonus blocks from the original Square Off? For the sake of simplicity they don't exist; you have 2 minutes to complete as many target equations as possible before the game runs out.