The game of Dots is played on a rectangular array of dots. The players alternate placing edges connecting the dots. When a player makes a box, he puts his name in the box and moves again. At the end, the player with the most boxes wins. If the number of boxes is equal, then the game is a tie.
On Yahoo Dots, the first player is Yellow and makes yellow boxes and the second person is Green so makes green boxes.
Here is an example game on the 3x3 Dots board
The players start, with Yellow moving first
On his last move, Yellow allows Green to take a box.
Green takes the box, but he is forced to move again. Any move that
Green makes allows Yellow to take all the other boxes.
Every beginner who wants to improve his game
should read the sections about the
basic strategy, that is,
doublecrosses,
control, and the
chain rule.
The basic strategy should allow you to beat most people.
The rest
is mostly technical details that allow you to implement the
basic strategy since Dots, in particular, you will have to
understand the chain rule in depth and know all about chains.
You will also learn about tactics
like sacrifices. You will
also need to know basic
openings concepts.
The next big step is learning how to go beyond the chain
rule, by winning games even when you lose the chain fight.
This will clearly identify you as an expert player. You will
also need to understand the
quad and make a catalogue of
standard endgames leading to
ties in order to defend with Green. Playing with such endgames
in mind is the other big step in becoming an expert player.
If you're a good Dots player (2500+ Yahoo), then
you might want to give me some pointers about the game, and I will
credit you on this website. Just send me
Sorry, but I won't be able to tell you how to win all your games.
Computer analysis
has shown that 5x5 Dots (4x4 boxes) is always a tie with best
play by both players.
You should also try your hand at
6x6 Dots. You can do this
on Yahoo by simply choosing the 10x10 board option, and
only playing in the bottom left-hand 6x6 corner. If you've
also mastered that game, I suggest you
try playing Go,
which I find similar to Dots, but which is a much more
interesting and challenging game.
Since many people reading this site will be used to Yahoo Dots, I
will use their notation, for example, the first player will be Yellow
and the second player will be Green. Mathematicians have traditionally
called these Dodie and Evie, because Dodie plays the odd movies and
Evie playes the even moves. In books, you will also see A for the first
player and B for the second player.
I have made a list of technical terms in the
glossary.
What's your level?
Basic notation
In this site, I will mostly talk about 5x5 (4x4 boxes) Dots,
since this is the only interesting version of the game that is available
on Yahoo, since the 10x10 is already too big and long, let alone 15x15 or 20x20
(are you listening, Yahoo?). Mathematicians like
Berlekamp have mostly been playing 6x6 (5x5 boxes) Dots, but
it seems that the games are very similar
and my experience shows
that my understanding of 5x5 Dots carries over quite well to 6x6.
You can
play
6x6 Dots on Yahoo by choosing the 10x10 board option, and
only playing in the bottom left-hand 6x6 corner.
You can also practice 6x6 Dots against
Dabble.
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