How to play Dots and Boxes

The goal

The rules

• On your turn, draw one line between two neighboring dots, across or down.
• If your line closes a box (its fourth side), the box is yours and you must draw another line. Closing two boxes with one line claims both.
• If your line closes nothing, the turn passes. The game ends when every box is claimed.
• Who starts alternates from game to game. On the 4×4 board an 8–8 draw is possible.

Playing

• Tap between two dots to draw. Faint dashes show the lines still open, and the one under your finger lights up.
• Your lines and boxes are blue, the computer’s are coral. The outlined score shows whose turn it is.
• Undo takes back your last line and the computer’s reply. New game lets you pick the board size (3×3, 4×4 or 5×5 boxes) and the level.

Strategy

• Don’t draw the third side of a box: the computer takes it. Early on, play lines that give nothing away.
• Eventually every line gives something away. Hand over the shortest chain of boxes you can.
• The long-chain rule: once the board splits into long chains (three or more boxes), the player who doesn’t have to open them wins most of the boxes. Count the safe lines left to see who will have to move first.
• Double-dealing: when you’re handed a long chain, take all but the last two boxes and leave them with one line down their middle. Your opponent takes those two but then has to open the next chain for you.
• Open a two-box chain with the line between the boxes, so it can’t be handed back to you.

Levels

• Easy: grabs boxes when it sees them but often hands boxes over.
• Normal: avoids giving boxes away, takes whole chains, and gives up the smallest chain when it has to.
• Hard: plays for the long chains, double-deals to keep control, and calculates the endgame exactly.

Questions

Strategy guides