Who created the original game of Tetris?

Alexey Pajitnov created the original game of Tetris. He developed it in 1985 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow, designing the puzzle around falling geometric pieces that form and clear horizontal lines.

Pajitnov was inspired by pentomino puzzles, but he reduced the pieces to tetrominoes—shapes made from four connected squares. The name Tetris combines the Greek-derived prefix “tetra,” meaning four, with “tennis,” one of Pajitnov’s favorite sports. The earliest version ran on the Soviet Elektronika 60 computer.

Other programmers helped spread and adapt the game. Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov worked with Pajitnov on versions for IBM-compatible computers, while Henk Rogers later helped secure important publishing rights. Those collaborators were influential, but they did not replace Pajitnov as the creator of the original Tetris concept and game.