Board games

Dots and Boxes

Draw lines to complete boxes and claim more of the grid than the computer does.

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Controls

Arrow keys or WASDMove the marker between the line slots.
Space, Enter or tapDraw the line at the marker.
RStart a new game.

How to play

  1. Press R or tap the board to start. You draw the first line.
  2. Move the marker between the open line slots with the arrow keys or WASD.
  3. Press space, Enter, or tap to draw that line. Completing the fourth side of a box claims it and gives you another turn.
  4. Finish with more boxes than the computer. Late on, try to give away a short chain so your opponent must open a longer one.

About Dots and Boxes

Dots and Boxes is a paper game of two halves. For a while it feels like idle doodling - you draw single lines between dots and little seems to be at stake. Then the board fills, and suddenly almost every line you could draw hands the opponent a box, and the game becomes about who is forced to open the first long chain.

The skill is in the endgame trick the beginner never sees: deliberately giving away a small chain so that your opponent must open a larger one back to you. The computer completes every box it can, avoids handing you a free one while it has a safe line, and uses that sacrifice idea when it must. You move a marker to an edge and draw it with the primary key or a tap. Most boxes wins.

Frequently asked questions

Once the board fills, most lines complete a box for whoever draws the next one. The skill is to run out of safe lines after your opponent does, and to sacrifice a short chain so they must open a longer one.

Yes. Completing the fourth side of a box claims it and lets you draw again, which is how long chains fall to one player in a single turn.

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.

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