Board games

Gomoku

Place stones and be first to make an unbroken line of five, blocking the computer rows.

Loading Gomoku...

Every game plays locally in your browser. Nothing about your play is uploaded to a server. Your high scores are kept in this browser on this device only, and you can clear anything these games have saved from the privacy page.

Controls

Arrow keys or WASDMove the marker around the grid.
Space, Enter or tapPlace a stone on the chosen point.
RStart a new game.

How to play

  1. Press R or tap the board to start. You place the first stone.
  2. Move the marker around the grid with the arrow keys or WASD.
  3. Press space, Enter, or tap to place a stone on an empty point.
  4. Be first to line up five stones in a row, and block the computer open rows of three and four before they grow.

About Gomoku

Gomoku, or five-in-a-row, is Tic-Tac-Toe grown up and let loose on a big grid. The goal is simply five of your stones in an unbroken line, but with room to manoeuvre the real game becomes about threats: a row of four forces a block, and an open-ended three threatens to become two different fours at once, which no single move can stop.

Winning is less about your own line and more about never letting the opponent build an open four, while quietly setting up a double threat of your own. The computer here scores every square for how much it helps it and hurts you, blocks your fours on sight, and presses its own rows when you let it. You move a marker and place with the primary key or a tap.

Frequently asked questions

It uses a modest grid that fits as text and still gives room to manoeuvre. The goal is the classic one: five of your stones in an unbroken line, in any direction.

Never let it build an open row of four, and watch for an open three that threatens two fours at once. The computer does the same to you, so set your own double threat while you can.

While you are here

BNS Data Tools

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