TRY TO REMEMBER

COUPLES CONCENTRATION

A FUN WAY TO PLAY THE CLASSIC GAME OF CONCENTRATION WITH A GROUP.

PREPARATION

All players create two grids of eight columns and five rows, resulting in forty boxes each, on two separate sheets of paper. Place numbers 1 through 8 along the top from left to right for the eight columns and letters A through E down the left side for the rows. In the first grid, each player places twenty “couples” somewhere in the grid. (For example, in one box you would put Romeo, and in another box you would put Juliet; in one box you would put Bonnie, and in another box you would put Clyde.)

TIP: You can use couples everyone knows in your group, such as friends and family members or famous people, or you can get creative: Bert and Ernie could be a couple, or you can even go with oil and vinegar, Star Trek and Star Wars, or shoes and socks.

The second grid each player makes is a scorekeeping grid and remains blank for the time being.

OBJECTIVE

For each grid, players attempt to find more couples than everyone else.

GAME TIME

Player 1 starts the game with his grid, and the other players set their grids aside until their round. Like the card game Concentration, every player takes turns asking Player 1 to reveal who is in two specific boxes.

IMPORTANT: Player 1 should not let any player see his completed game grid at any time during his round.

Player 2 goes first and asks for two boxes to be revealed by Player 1, one at a time. (For example, Player 2 may first ask for “A4,” and Player 1 may reply to the group, “That’s George Washington,” and then Player 2 may ask for “C7,” and Player 1 may reply to the group, “That’s Tom Cruise. No match.”) One player at a time asks Player 1 to reveal two boxes. When a player gets a match, he or she goes again, asking for two more boxes. However, if a player’s guess does not turn up a match, play moves on to the next player.

To keep track of the matches and points, Player 1 uses his scorekeeping grid to write the name of the player who got the match in both boxes.

IMPORTANT: The scorekeeping grid should always be in full view of all the other players. That way, all players know which matches have already been completed and can avoid asking for those specific boxes again.

Once the grid from Player 1 is completed, round two begins with a new grid from Player 2. Go around the room until all players’ grids are guessed, then tally up the points for the final score.

SCORING

Players earn 1 point for every box they occupy in the scoring grid. Therefore, if a player gets eight matches, he or she will earn a total of 16 points for that round.