About Dots & Boxes
What Dots & Boxes is
Dots & Boxes is the pencil-and-paper game of drawing lines between dots. Players take turns adding one line between two neighboring dots. A line is horizontal or vertical, never diagonal. When your line is the fourth side of a box, you claim that box and you draw again. Tamaki's board can be 5 by 5, 6 by 6, 7 by 7, or 8 by 8 boxes.
Objective
Claim more boxes than the other player. The paper fills one line at a time, and the player with more boxes when every line has been drawn wins. Long chains of nearly finished boxes are how a single turn becomes most of the score.
How a round works
A turn is one line, unless that line closes a box. Closing a box lets you move again, and if the new line closes another box, you keep going. That is a chain. The dangerous square is a box with three sides already drawn. The next person who touches it has to give it away, and often has to give away the boxes that follow it. The host of a match chooses the board size and who draws the first line.
How scoring works
Each box you close is one point. There is no bonus for the length of a line or for who drew first. The match ends when the grid is full, and the higher box count wins. On a 5 by 5 board there are 25 boxes. An 8 by 8 board has 64, so the chains are longer and one bad line costs more.
Number of players
Dots & Boxes here is a two-player game. Play the computer at Easy, Medium, or Hard, pass one device between two people, or sit in an online room. Both seats have to be filled before an online match starts.
Strategy
Before you draw, count the boxes that are one line from finished. If a move would leave a three-sided box, look for a line that does not. When a chain can no longer be avoided, the usual plan is to give away the short end so you can take the long end on your next turn. That trade is the whole game once the board starts to break open. On a larger grid, wait longer before you open the first chain.
Local and online play
Play the computer on this device, or pass the device for a local match. Online, the host shares a 6-character code, both players sit down, and the host chooses who draws first. No account is required.
Where to play
Play in the browser at dotsandboxes.tamakitech.com, or install Dots & Boxes on Google Play.