Pencil and paper Games

Dots and Boxes

Players take turns in drawing lines between dots on a grid. The player who completes the most boxes wins.

Description

The game is played starting with a rectangular array of dots.

The two players take turns to join two adjacent dots with a horizontal or vertical line. If a player completes the fourth side of a box they initial that box and must draw another line.

When all the boxes have been completed the winner is the player who has initialled the most boxes.

The game is surprisingly skilful, and even on a 4x4 grid there is plenty of opportunity for skilful play.

Example

The following game on a 3x3 grid is won by Blue, who scores 3 against Red's one:

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