Board games

Connect Four

Drop discs into a grid and race the computer to line up four of your colour in a row.

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Controls

Left and Right arrowsMove the marker across the columns.
Space, Enter or tapDrop a disc into the chosen column.
RStart a new game.

How to play

  1. Press R or tap the board to start. You play the first disc.
  2. Slide the marker across the columns with the left and right arrows.
  3. Press space, Enter, or tap to drop a disc; it falls to the lowest free slot in that column.
  4. Make a line of four of your discs - across, down or diagonally - before the computer does, and block its threats of four.

About Connect Four

Connect Four looks like a childrens game and plays like a tactics puzzle. Discs only fall to the lowest free slot in a column, so you are never placing a piece exactly where you want it - you are choosing a column and living with where gravity drops it. Every move both builds one of your own lines and hands the opponent the square on top of it.

The computer here looks a few moves ahead: it takes a winning drop when it has one, blocks yours when you threaten four, and otherwise steers for the centre column, where the most lines cross. You move a marker across the columns and drop with the primary key or a tap. Beat it and your win is added to your run for this session, which is saved on this device.

Frequently asked questions

It looks a few moves ahead: it takes a winning drop when it has one, blocks your four when you threaten it, and otherwise plays toward the centre column. A player who sets up two threats at once can still beat it.

Discs obey gravity, so a disc always falls to the lowest free slot in the column you choose. You pick the column, not the exact square.

While you are here

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The same team builds a set of free, privacy-first data and developer utilities - formatters, converters, validators and calculators - that run in your browser the same way these games do.

Open BNS Data Tools