A grid of dots, two players, one line each turn. Whoever closes a box wins it — and moves again. At the end, whoever has more boxes wins.
You can play on your own against the computer (three levels) or with two players against someone in the hall. A game on 5 × 5 takes four to eight minutes.
The board has 5 × 5 boxes — that is 6 × 6 dots. For a quick round there is 4 × 4, for experienced players 6 × 6.
It is a sheet of hand-made paper on a walnut desk pad; the dots are brass rivets. You write in sepia copper, your opponent in indigo.
On your turn, connect two neighbouring dots — across or down, never diagonally and never past a dot. Each line exists only once.
Draw the fourth side of a box and it is yours: it gets a wash in your ink and your initial. And you move again straight away.
If that closes another box, you keep going — long chains in a single turn. Example: three boxes in a row each have three sides. You close the first, now the second misses only one side, you close it, then the third — and only then do you draw a line that closes nothing, and it is your opponent’s turn.
⭐ One line can close two boxes at once. Both are yours — you still move again only once.
When every line is drawn, the game is over. Whoever has more boxes wins. On 5 × 5 (25 boxes) there is always a winner; on 4 × 4 and 6 × 6 it can be a draw.
At first it is easy: draw lines that give no box a third side — otherwise your opponent closes it and moves on. But at some point there is no such line left. Then someone has to give a chain away.
This is where the game is decided: give away the shortest chain. And whoever receives a long chain can play the double-cross: deliberately leave the last two boxes and give them back with a single line. Now the other player has to open the next chain — two boxes given to keep the big ones.
Once you see that, Dots and Boxes stops being a doodle and becomes a game of foresight.
Just tap into the gap between two dots — the line is drawn right away. Each line’s tap area is a diamond as wide as a whole box, so a thumb is enough, and every tap belongs to exactly one line.
The last line drawn sits on a golden glow, so after a break you can see what happened last. Whoever takes a chain sees a “+3” next to the score.
| Level | What it does |
|---|---|
| Easy | takes every box you give away, otherwise plays anywhere |
| Medium | never gives away a third side while it can avoid it, then sacrifices the shortest chain |
| Hard | counts chains and loops, fights for control at the end and plays the double-cross |
Games against the computer are practice: they appear in your record but give neither points nor milestones.
Games against other players count: 10 points for a win, 4 for a draw, 1 for taking part — in the hall’s leaderboards (week, month, year).
Your level ⭐ is the number of milestones reached plus one. They are the same five as in every game of the Duel Corner: your first game against another player, your first win, played 3 different people, 5 wins and 25 wins.
Practice against the computer does not count towards points or milestones. Your record still keeps it — including the most boxes you ever took in one turn.
Tap two players above the board — you open a table straight away. While the table is open, nothing is drawn, and a free seat says “🪑 free”.
📐 Whoever opened the table chooses the board size. As soon as both are there, they pick 4 × 4, 5 × 5 or 6 × 6 — then the game begins. The other player sees “… is choosing the board size”. If no choice is made within the move time, the computer picks the default 5 × 5.
Who starts is drawn by lot. Table code, inviting, the call back to the table, move time, chat and scoring work as in every Duel Corner game — see the 🎯 Duel Corner guide.
Results and your settings are saved at the end of each game. A solo game in progress is not saved. In a duel the game lives on the server — you can continue on another device.
Solo play runs entirely on your device: once you have opened the game with a connection, you can start it without one.