Dots & Boxes

Dots & Boxes makes the fourth side of a square more important than its first three. Two people share one screen, and closing a box lets the same player draw again.

Objective and win/loss conditions

Claim more boxes than your opponent by the time every box is enclosed. Equal totals produce a draw. The small board contains 4×4 boxes, or 16 in total; the larger board contains 6×6 boxes, or 36. There is no timer and no computer opponent.

How it plays

Choose an undrawn horizontal or vertical edge between neighboring dots. If the edge finishes no box, the turn passes. If it finishes one or two boxes, those boxes become yours and you keep the turn. It does not matter who drew the other three sides.

For example, two neighboring boxes can each have three sides with their shared middle edge still missing. Drawing that one edge claims both boxes, adds two points, and grants another move. Continue playing until you draw an edge that finishes no box or the board ends.

Scoring and strategy

Every claimed box is worth one point. On a 16-box board, a final 9–7 count wins by two boxes; the number of lines each player drew does not decide the winner.

Before adding a third side, inspect what your opponent could claim next. Several nearly closed boxes can form a chain that one player takes using consecutive extra moves. When only risky openings remain, compare the lengths of the chains you would release rather than treating each edge as an isolated decision.

Local save data

nocharge:passplay:match:dots-and-boxes records the latest completed board size, each player’s box count, result, and date. It stores neither the drawn-edge layout nor player names. Reloading will not resume a half-finished board. My Arcade reads this single browser-local result rather than maintaining a public score table.