How to Play Infinite Tic-tac-toe or Gomuku?

How to Play Infinite Tic-tac-toe or Gomuku?

January 18, 2020 Off By George

 

Tic-tac-toe is a popular game all around the world. All of us have surely played this game at least once in our lifetime and it was great fun to play it with friends and family. But, did you know that there are different variants of tic-tac-toe and each of the variant come with their own set of rules and objectives. Hence, not all kind of tic-tac-toe are same just like the infinite tic-tac-toe. Also known as Gomuku or Five in A Row, this abstract strategy tic tac toe game is played with traditional black and white stones. You can use a 15X15 or 19X19 board to play it. This game has different other names in different places. Let us take a detailed look at it in today’s blog so that you can play it easily.

Main Rules of The Infinite Tic-tac-toe

With various rules adopted by the people in different parts of the world, the Swap2 rule based on the rule of Swap in Renju, is the official rule that is usually followed mostly. In this rule, the first player will start by placing three stones of any colour on the board. It can be 2 black and 1 white or vice versa. Then, the second player will select any one of the options – play the black colour, play the white colour or let the first player decide which colour to choose. Swap2 has solved the low complexity issue that makes the game much more fairer to play.

Some Important Strategies To Follow

Here we have listed some really important strategies which will help you win the game of Infinite Tic-tac-toe and emerge as the winner. Make sure to check out these tips which we have found out after rigorous observations. In most games, these tips will be really useful.

  • Usually in Infinite Tic-tac-toe, the rule of three and three is going to ban a move that will simultaneously form two open rows of any of the three stones (if the rows are not blocked by any of the opponent’s colored stone at either end).
  • In this game, the rule of four and four is going to ban any move by the opponent that will simultaneously form two different rows of four coloured stones.
  • You may choose to give a handicap that may be given at such point that after the first “three and three” play is made by the player, the opposing player is going to place two stones in their next turn. These stones are going to be put to block any of the opponent’s row of three.

  • In an attempt to improve the fairness of the game, there is a reduction in the first-move advantage that includes the rule of swap. It the can be generalizable as “swap-(x,y,z)” and characterizable as the partially compounded and also partially iterated version of the pie rule.

So, these are the rules and essential tips which you need to know about the Infinite Tic-tac-toe. All these rules are variable and can be changed by the organizer but most likely these rules have been considered to be more popular than others.

Final Words 

initiate tic-tac-toe is a really challenging game and is much different from the traditional tic-tac-toe. You need to learn and understand about the rules and moves a lot before you can start competing with others.