📐 Dots and Boxes

How to play

Two players share one device and take turns drawing single lines between neighbouring dots on a six by six grid of dots. Whenever a line closes the fourth side of a square, that square is filled in the drawer's colour and they immediately take another turn. Play continues until all twenty-five squares are claimed, and whoever owns more of them wins.

• Board — click or tap the gap between two dots to draw a line there. The click snaps to the nearest empty gap, so it need not be exact.
• Turn indicator — the highlighted score panel and the message under the board show whose turn it is. Purple is Player 1, blue is Player 2.
• New Game button — clears the board and starts again with Player 1 to move.

Scoring

One point per box, twenty-five in total, so the first player to thirteen has won and a draw is impossible. Completing a box does not pass the turn, so a player who opens a chain can take all of it in one visit. A line that is the shared side of two nearly finished squares scores both at once and still grants another turn. The turn only changes when your line completes nothing.

Tips

• The opening is not about scoring. Any line that gives a square its third side hands that square over, so early on only draw on squares missing two or more sides.
• When you must give something away, give away the smallest chain. Count how many boxes the reply can take before choosing.
• Chains matter more than boxes: opening a chain of two costs far less than opening one of six.
• Late on you can decline the last two boxes of a chain on purpose, so your opponent is the one forced to open the next one.

Frequently asked questions