Tic-Tac-Toe
Tic-Tac-Toe: Quick Guide and Game Info
Tic-Tac-Toe is easy to learn: place your marks on the board and complete a row before your opponent does. Our version at Evergreen Arcade takes the classic game a little further with three board sizes, three computer opponents and Best-of-5 or Best-of-10 series.
Choose the traditional 3×3 board, step up to 4×4, or give yourself more room to think on 5×5. You can also choose whether to play as X or O before taking on Marty, Martin or Martimus.
The larger boards change more than just the amount of space available. On 3×3 you need three marks in a row to win, while 4×4 requires four and 5×5 requires five. As the board gets bigger, there are more possible threats to watch and more opportunities to build your own.
We built our version of Tic-Tac-Toe to offer more variety than a standard 3×3 game while keeping the rules simple.
There are three computer opponents, and each one approaches the game differently:
Marty — Easy: Marty mostly chooses his moves at random. That makes him fairly easy to beat, but random doesn’t always mean bad. Every now and then he’ll land on exactly the square you wanted or accidentally put together a surprisingly good game.
Martin — Medium: Martin recognizes patterns on the board and pays more attention to what is happening than Marty does. He doesn’t always make the best decision, though, so you’ll still find opportunities to outthink him.
Martimus — Hard: Martimus is our strongest opponent. He uses strategy when choosing his moves and is much better at recognizing threats and creating opportunities of his own. If you’re comfortable beating Marty and Martin, Martimus is where things get more interesting.
You can face any of the three opponents on the 3×3, 4×4 or 5×5 board.
Game Layout and Setup
Start by choosing your board size:
3×3: Three marks in a row wins.
4×4: Four marks in a row wins.
5×5: Five marks in a row wins.
Next, choose your opponent and whether you want to play as X or O.
You can also turn the game into a longer contest by selecting a Best of 5 or Best of 10 series. The scoreboard keeps track of how you and your opponent are doing as you work through the rounds.
The game also includes sound controls and an Undo option if you need to take back a move.
Once everything is set, you’re ready to play.
How to Play Tic-Tac-Toe
You and your computer opponent take turns placing marks on empty squares.
If you’re playing on the 3×3 board, the first player to place three marks in an uninterrupted horizontal, vertical or diagonal line wins the round.
The same idea applies to the larger boards, but the winning line gets longer:
3×3: connect 3
4×4: connect 4
5×5: connect 5
If the board fills before either player completes a winning line, the round ends in a draw. If every round ends in a draw, the series does too. A classic, boring draw.
The basic rules don’t change between board sizes, but the way you need to think about the game certainly does.
How to Win at Tic-Tac-Toe
The 3×3 board is small enough that every move matters. Against a strong opponent, one careless move can be enough to give away the game.
Take a winning move first. Before thinking about anything complicated, check whether you can win immediately. If you already have two marks in a row and the third square is empty, take it. It sounds obvious, but when several threats are developing at once it’s surprisingly easy to concentrate on what your opponent is doing and overlook your own winning move.
Block immediate threats. If your opponent has two marks in a row with the third square open, block it. An attack of your own isn’t much use if your opponent can win on the next turn.
Use the center. On a 3×3 board, the center participates in more potential winning lines than any other square. If it’s available, it’s usually a valuable position to control. If your opponent takes the center first, the corners become particularly important.
Look for forks. A fork happens when one move creates two different winning threats at the same time. For example, your next move might leave you one square away from completing both a horizontal line and a diagonal line. Your opponent can block one threat, but can’t stop both with a single move.
Creating forks, and recognizing when your opponent is about to create one, is one of the most important skills in 3×3 Tic Tac Toe.
Corners are usually stronger than edges. Corners can participate in three winning lines: a row, a column and a diagonal. An edge square participates in only two. That doesn’t mean an edge is always a bad move, but when you have several safe choices available, a corner will often create more possibilities.
Strategy for 4×4 and 5×5. The larger boards require a different approach. On a 3×3 board, threats develop very quickly and there aren’t many places to hide them. On 4×4 and especially 5×5, both players have more room to build several possible lines at once.
Strategy for 4×4 and 5×5 Tic-Tac-Toe
Don’t focus on just one line. It’s tempting to start placing marks across a row and keep extending it. Against Martin or Martimus, an obvious attack gives your opponent plenty of time to interfere. Instead, look for moves that contribute to more than one potential winning line. A well placed mark might help a horizontal line, a vertical line and a diagonal at the same time.
Watch the entire board. The bigger the board becomes, the easier it is to concentrate on one area and miss a threat somewhere else. Before making your move, scan the rows, columns and diagonals for both your own opportunities and your opponent’s.
Build overlapping threats. The basic idea behind a 3×3 fork becomes even more useful on the larger boards. Try to create positions where several potential winning lines share some of the same marks. If your opponent has to keep responding to one threat after another, you’ll eventually have a chance to create two threats at once.
Learn your opponent. The three computer players don’t think the same way. Marty’s random play can be unpredictable, but it also means he frequently overlooks threats. Martin understands more of what’s happening on the board, but he doesn’t always choose the strongest response. Martimus is much more strategic. Against him, relying on an obvious line is unlikely to be enough. You’ll have a better chance by creating several possibilities and forcing him to respond to you.
Best-of-5 and Best-of-10. A single Tic Tac Toe round can be over quickly, so our game also lets you play a longer series. Choose Best of 5 for a shorter contest or Best of 10 when you want to spend more time battling the same opponent. Playing a series is also a good way to move through the difficulty levels. See how consistently you can beat Marty, move on to Martin, and then find out how your strategy holds up against Martimus. You can also switch board sizes when the traditional 3×3 game starts feeling too familiar.
A Little Bit of Tic-Tac-Toe History
Tic Tac Toe is ancient. Similar three in a row games date back to around 1300 BC in Ancient Egypt, where people scratched grids on roofing tiles and used pebbles or seeds as markers. Although we’re not sure if they were exactly the same they appeared to follow similar patterns.
The Romans had their own version called terni lapilli (“three pebbles at a time”) around the first century BC. Players moved limited pieces around the grid instead of filling it up. Over time, the game spread across cultures, appearing in various forms like Three Men’s Morris.
The name “Noughts and Crosses” popped up in print in 1858 in Britain, and “Tic Tac Toe” became popular in the US in the 20th century. Today it’s a beloved pastime worldwide and one of the first games ever programmed on computers.
Ready to make your own history? Jump into a game against Marty, Martin, or Martimus and see if you can outsmart them on our 3×3, 4×4, or 5×5 boards.
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