Just do your math!

Loose letters.
Coming together in words.
Crossed, on the pages of a newspaper, in a lonely play.
Intersecting, over a board, bringing together two, three or four players.
Being turned into points, which are numbers.
We call it Scrabble.

Loose digits.
Coming together in numbers.
That turn into other numbers.
By adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing.
To the taste of the four basic operations, on a board.
Numbers being turned into other numbers, which are points.
We call it Mathable!

Some people prefer letters.
Some people prefer numbers.
And some people enjoy playing with both.

Each player starts with a seven-number hand.

To place a number on the board, it must:

• be the result of an operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) that uses two adjacent numbers;
• be placed in line, vertically or horizontally, with the two numbers;
• be placed in a free space, immediately before or after those numbers.

In the example of the image above, starting from the initial position, the following pieces were placed:

• 3, as a result of 3x1 (or 3/1);
• 1, as a result of 2-1;
• 12, as a result of 3x4;
• 6, as a result of 2+4.

A player can put, in the same turn, how many numbers he wants. 

At the end of his turn, he gets the number of pieces required to have a new 7-number hand.

Alternatively, a player may try to improve his hand, by discarding a set of numbers, and drawing an equal amount of new numbers.

The board has some special squares:

• 2x – Doubling the value of the number placed in this space.
• 3x – Tripling the value of the number placed in this space.
• Operating signal – Forcing the number placed to be the result of the indicated operation. In such case, the player may draw an additional number to his hand but is not obliged to do so.

The scoring mode is simple, but you better have a recording sheet:

• Each piece placed scores a number of points equal to its face value.
• The parts placed in 2x or 3x squares score, respectively, the double or triple of their facial value.
• A piece can be the correct result for operations, equal or not, involving more than a pair of numbers, either horizontally or vertically. In this case, its value is counted for each one of the performed operations.
• The player who manages to put all the pieces of his hand scores an extra value of 50 points. If during the turn he got any additional pieces, he must also be able to place them, in order to obtain this bonus. If the hand is less than seven numbers, which can happen near the end of the match, when there are no longer enough parts to reset the hand, the bonus does not apply.

Each player gets a card identifying the available quantity of pieces for each of the numbers, which is fundamental information to realize which combinations are no longer possible or are unlikely.

It should be noted that not all the numbers are present, that there is a zero, that there are seven pieces for each of the numbers from 1 to 10, and that there is only a single piece for each of the remainder.

Matter to think about, for those wanting to play in a more strategic way, avoiding or creating impossibilities.

And that's it, for the game of numbers and of the operations that transform them, to be played by two, three or four players. Now, just do your math!


Mathable, Montreal, 1987: Jocus. Diset, S.A., Barcelona.