Tic Tac Toe
Three in a row. Best of 5.
Tic Tac Toe, also called noughts and crosses, is a two-player game in which you take turns placing your mark on a grid. The first to get three marks in a row, across, down or diagonally, wins the game.
Everyone already knows the rules. Each mark draws on with a pen stroke, the winning line lights up sun yellow, and the background tint shows whose turn it is.
Also known as Noughts and crosses, X and O, XOXO, Tic-tac-toe, Xs and Os.
- How you hold it
- Pass and play
- Match
- Best of 5
- Length
- About 1½ to 2½ minutes
- Play
- Friend, bot or online
How to play Tic Tac Toe: quick rules
About 1½ to 2½ minutes at best of 5. Full rules, options and bot levels are further down.
- 1Take turns tapping an empty square to place your mark.
- 2Get three of your marks in a row, across, down or corner to corner.
- 3A draw is replayed and does not count.
- 4Win the most games, and whoever lost a game starts the next.
Play Tic Tac Toe here
Two of you on this screen, or you against the bot. The full game is in the app.
Tic Tac Toe rules
Marks and turns
- Red places ✕ and Blue places ◯, and the marks never swap during a match.
- Players take turns placing one mark each. A placed mark is permanent: there is no undo.
- The starter of the first game is picked at random. A 3, 2, 1, GO countdown runs before every game and names who starts.
- There is no turn timer. The game waits for as long as you need.
Winning a game
- On the 3 × 3 board, three marks in a row across, down or corner to corner win the game.
- On the 4 × 4 board you need four in a row. Only the two long diagonals count, not the shorter ones.
- A move that fills the last square and completes a line is a win, not a draw.
- A move that completes two lines at once is a single win, and both lines are highlighted.
Draws
- A game is drawn only when every square is filled and no line is complete. The game plays on to a full board even when nobody can still win.
- A drawn game is replayed and doesn't count: the game number stays the same and nobody gets a pip.
- The player who didn't start the drawn game starts the replay, so a draw never hands anyone the first move twice.
- There is no limit on draws in a row, and no rule changes to force a result.
Winning the match
- After a won game, the player who lost it starts the next one, which evens out the first-move advantage.
- The match is best of 3, 5 or 7, and it ends the moment someone has a majority: 2, 3 or 4 wins. A match can't end tied.
- On a rematch, the player who lost the match starts the first game.
Boards
- 3 × 3
- Nine squares, three in a row wins. The classic board, and the default.
- 4 × 4
- Sixteen squares, four in a row wins across rows, columns and the two long diagonals. Longer games with more room to set traps.
Tips to win at Tic Tac Toe
- 1If you start, take a corner. It gives your opponent the most ways to go wrong.
- 2If your opponent opens in a corner, take the centre, or you will probably lose.
- 3Look for a fork: one move that makes two lines of two at once, so only one can be blocked.
- 4Always check for your own winning square before you block, and block before you build.
- 5On 4 × 4, only the long diagonals count, so fight for the rows and columns through the middle.
Where Tic Tac Toe comes from
Three-in-a-row games on a small grid are very old: the Romans played a version called terni lapilli, and similar boards are thought to go back further still. The name noughts and crosses was in print in Britain by the 1800s, and tic-tac-toe became the usual American name in the 20th century.
Controls
Upright, handed back and forth. A banner in the mover's colour says whose turn it is.
- Hand the phone back and forth, upright. On your turn, tap an empty square.
- A mark is placed when you lift your finger, as long as you started and ended in the same square. Slide off to another square and nothing is placed.
- Tapping a square that's already taken just gives that mark a little shake. Your turn isn't lost.
- After each mark the board ignores taps for a moment, so a double tap can't place a mark for the next player.
- Against the bot, the board ignores taps while the bot is thinking.
Options
Every option is free. Defaults are marked.
| Option | Choices | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Best of | 35 (default)7 | How many games the match can run to; win a majority of them to take it. |
| Board | 3 × 3 (default)4 × 4 | The size of the grid, and whether three or four in a row wins. |
Play Tic Tac Toe against the bot
The bot plays Blue and sees only the board. It searches for its best move, but on some turns it plays a random square instead, the way a person slips, and among equally good moves it picks at random, so no two games run the same. Three thinking dots show while it decides. Outside tournaments you can spend coins on a hint that highlights the square the bot's strongest search would pick for you; it never places the mark, and there's one hint per turn.
Easy
Often misses a block or a win and plays corners and edges at random. A beginner can beat it.
Normal
Plays sensibly, but now and then misses a block or walks into a two-move trap.
Hard
Close to perfect on 3 × 3, so most games against a good player end in a draw. On 4 × 4 it can miss a threat set up several moves ahead.
Online, tournaments and hints
- Online
- Plays online todayTic Tac Toe also plays online, against a stranger or a friend you invite, with a few small rule differences from a match on one phone.
- Tournament
- Can be drawn in a tournamentIn a tournament it is always best of 5 on the 3 × 3 board, whatever your saved options, and hints are off.
- Hints
- Stuck against the bot? A hint lights up the strongest move for a few coins. Never with a friend, online or in a tournament.
Coming soon
- Turn timer. An optional timer for each turn in a match on one phone. Today the game waits as long as you like.
- Earlier draw calls. Calling a draw as soon as neither player can still make a line, instead of playing on to a full board.
How it feels
- A pen-scratch sound and a pen stroke for every mark, pitched differently for ✕ and ◯, with a light tick.
- The background tint and the turn banner follow whose turn it is, and the bot's banner shows thinking dots.
- On a win the winning squares fill sun yellow, the other marks fade, a short jingle plays and the winner's pip bounces.
- A draw turns the background cream, with a low trombone sigh and “Draw — replay!”
Accessibility
- Colour is never the only cue: ✕ and ◯ carry who is who, the banner names the mover, and the winning marks thicken so the line reads even in greyscale.
- One finger and one tap per turn, on large squares.
- With reduced motion on, marks appear with a quick fade instead of the pen stroke, there's no pip bounce and the winning line stays still.
- Every sound and vibration has a visual equivalent, so it plays fine with the sound off.
Tic Tac Toe questions
Yes. Noughts and crosses is the British name for the same game: Red places crosses, Blue places noughts, and three in a row wins.
Yes, when every square is filled and nobody has a line. In Duo Clash a drawn game is replayed and doesn't count, so the match always ends with a winner.
The starter of the first game is picked at random. After that, whoever lost the last game starts the next one.
Start in a corner, answer a corner opening with the centre, and look for a move that makes two threats at once. With perfect play on both sides, 3 × 3 always ends in a draw.
Yes. Tic Tac Toe in Duo Clash is built for two players on the same phone. Upright, handed back and forth. A banner in the mover's colour says whose turn it is.
Yes. The bot plays Blue and sees only the board. Choose Easy, Normal or Hard.
Play Tic Tac Toe on one phone
Free on Android. Sit face to face, or take on the bot on Easy, Normal or Hard.
