Tic Tac Toe
Get three in a row
Two sides alternate marks on a three by three grid, and the first to line up three in a row wins. Tic Tac Toe is a solved game: with correct play on both sides, every match ends in a draw. The skill is never slipping, and punishing the one move the other side gets wrong.
How to play
Playing Tic Tac Toe
- 1
Tap any empty square to place your mark, then the other side answers with a square of its own.
- 2
Line up three of your marks in a row, a column, or a diagonal to win.
- 3
Open in a corner, since that leaves exactly one reply, the center, that avoids losing.
- 4
Block the moment the other side holds two in a row with the third square open.
- 5
Take the win ahead of the block when your own three is one square away.
- 6
Read a full board with no line as a draw, the normal result between two careful players.
Tactics
Three ways to get better at Tic Tac Toe
Build a fork
A fork is a single move that opens two winning lines, and only one of them can be blocked. Start in a corner: if the answer is the opposite corner, not the center, the two open corners give a threat and then a fork.
The reply that draws
When the opening move takes the center, the only safe answer is a corner, because every edge reply there loses to correct play. When the opening move goes to an edge, answer in the center, which holds against every edge start.
Stop a fork early
You cannot block both arms of a fork once it exists, so prevent it. Make your own two in a row and force a block, but only if that forced block does not complete their fork. Otherwise take an edge square.
Inside Reel Games
Tic Tac Toe in the swipe feed
A round here lasts about as long as the swipe that brought you to it. Tic Tac Toe is already drawn when it arrives, with nothing to load first. The grid runs on the phone itself, so a dead signal on a train or in a parking structure makes no difference. Rounds restart back to back, and the app never puts an ad in between.
Good for the gap between two meetings that ran short.
Next up
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They are all in the same app, so trying one costs a swipe.
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Tic Tac Toe is one of 47
Free to download, no ads, and the whole library keeps working when your signal does not.