Dots and Boxes

  • Dots and boxes is a paper and pencil game for two players.
  • The game is first published in 1889 by mathematician Édouard Lucas.
  • Starting with an empty grid of dots, players take turns, adding a single horizontal or vertical line between two unjoined adjacent dots.
  • A player who completes the fourth side of a 1×1 box initials that box and adds another line.
  • In standart play, a player who can complete a box is not obliged to do so. In a variant of the game, however, this obligation is imposed.
  • The game ends when all boxes have been completed.
  • Whoever has initialed more boxes is declared the winner.
  • The board may be of any size, typically between 2×2 and 5x5.
  • The diagram above shows a game played on the 2×2 board, where player A wins against player B, 3-1.
  • An online version of the game is available here.
  • If you are keen on diving deeper into mathematics and winning strategies of the game, then check out Elwyn Berlekamp’s book below.

Read more at Wikipedia

 

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