How to play Dots and Boxes: strategy

Dots and Boxes looks like a children’s game, but there’s real strategy in it. It’s all about who has to open the long chains.

The rules

Players take turns drawing a line between two adjacent dots. Draw the fourth side of a box and you claim it, and take another turn. When all lines are drawn, the player with more boxes wins.

Safe moves

Early on, avoid drawing the third side of any box: that gives your opponent the box. As long as there are safe lines left, use them.

Chains

Eventually every remaining line gives something away. By then, the board has split into chains: rows of boxes where taking one lets you take the next. When you must open one, open the shortest chain.

Take the boxes you’re given

When your opponent opens a chain, take every box in it. Then you must draw another line, so ideally you want a small chain left to give back.

The double-cross

Expert players sometimes take all but two boxes of a long chain, then draw the line that hands those two boxes to the opponent. The opponent takes them, but then must open the next long chain. Giving up two boxes can win you a whole chain.

Count ahead

Near the end, count the chains and work out who will be forced to open the long ones. Sacrificing a box or two early to change that can decide the game.