How to play Dots and Boxes: a visual guide
Take turns drawing lines between dots, close the fourth side of a box to claim it and keep the turn, and own more boxes than your opponent when the grid is full. This guide covers the board, a turn, extra turns, scoring a round and the match, and the chain tactics that decide close games.
The board and the players
Dots and Boxes is a game for two players. The board starts as a square field of dots with no lines drawn. On PlayFaceToFace the field is seven dots by seven, which makes a grid of 36 boxes, six across and six down.
There are 84 places a line can go, one between each pair of neighbouring dots. Every box is surrounded by four of them, and a line inside the grid forms a side of two boxes at once. When you play Dots and Boxes online, you tap the gap between two dots to draw a line there.
Taking a turn
The player in the first seat draws the first line, and the same player starts every round of a match. In a practice game against the AI, you always go first.
- Choose an empty gap Pick any two neighbouring dots that don't have a line between them yet.
- Draw one line The line runs straight across or straight down between those two dots.
- Check the boxes on each side If your line was the fourth side of a box, the box is yours and you draw again. If it closed nothing, the turn passes to your opponent.
Online rooms give each turn 30 seconds. If the timer runs out, the game draws a line for you, so a slow turn still uses up a move.
Completing a box and the extra turn
A box belongs to whoever draws its fourth side. It doesn't matter who drew the other three. The box is claimed for you as soon as the line goes down.
Completing a box keeps the turn, and you must draw another line. If that line closes another box, you go again, and so on. A single turn can collect a whole run of boxes this way.
There is no passing. After a box you keep drawing until a line closes nothing, and only then does your opponent move.
Winning a round and the match
A round ends when all 84 lines have been drawn. By then every one of the 36 boxes has an owner. The player with more boxes wins the round and scores one match point.
If both players own 18 boxes, the round is a draw and nobody scores a match point. The first player to win three rounds wins the match. After each round either player can start the next one, and a finished match can be started over from zero.
Legal and illegal moves
The online board only accepts lines that fit the rules, but it helps to know them before your first game.
Allowed
- Drawing a line between two neighbouring dots, across or down.
- Drawing a line that adds a third side to a box, even though it lets your opponent take it.
- Drawing again after you complete a box, and again after each box that follows.
Not allowed
- Drawing a diagonal line, or a line that skips over a dot.
- Drawing over a line that is already there.
- Moving or erasing a line once it is drawn.
- Moving when it is your opponent's turn, or passing instead of drawing.
Safe lines and chains
A safe line is one that doesn't give any box its third side. While safe lines remain, draw them, because any third side you draw lets your opponent take that box on the next move.
As the board fills up, the open boxes join into chains, runs of boxes that each have two sides missing and connect to one another. Once the safe lines are gone, every line gives something away. Draw a line in a chain and your opponent can take its first box, then the next, all the way to the end.
The practice AI takes every box it can and avoids third sides while it has a safe line. It never turns boxes down, which makes it a good opponent for learning the trick below.
Keeping control with the double-cross
Taking every box in a chain has a cost. When you finish it, you still have to draw a line, and late in the round that line usually opens the next chain for your opponent. Strong players avoid this by giving up the last two boxes on purpose.
- Take all but two When your opponent opens a chain of three or more boxes, claim the boxes one at a time until only two are left.
- Draw the far end Instead of taking the next box, draw the line at the far end of the chain. Both remaining boxes now have three sides and share the one missing line, and because your line closed nothing, your turn ends.
- Let them double-cross Your opponent takes both boxes with that shared line, a move called a double-cross. Having completed boxes, they must draw again, and with no safe lines left that line opens the next chain for you.
Each time you do this you give away two boxes to keep control of the next chain. It pays off when the chains still to come hold more boxes than you give up, so count them before you decline.
You know the rules. Draw the first line.
Private rooms with friends, a quick public match, or a practice game against the AI. No download, no sign-up.
