Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Basic Rules
• The Most Important Rule
• Clarifying Rules

Basic Rules

1. Each turn, you mark one of the small squares.
2. When you get three in a row on a small board, you've won that board.
3. To win the game, you need to win three small boards in a row.

The Most Important Rule

You don't get to pick which of the nine boards to play on. That's determined by your opponent's previous move. Whichever square he picks, that's the board you must play in next. (And whichever square you pick will determine which board he plays on next.)

For example, if you play in a given square of a small board, your opponent's next move must be made in the small board that occupies that same position within the large 3-by-3 grid.

This lends the game a strategic element. You can't just focus on the little board. You've got to consider where your move will send your opponent, and where his next move will send you, and so on.

The resulting scenarios look bizarre. Players seem to move randomly, missing easy two- and three-in-a-rows. But there's a method to the madness — they're thinking ahead to future moves, wary of setting up their opponent on prime real estate. It is, in short, vastly more interesting than regular Tic-Tac-Toe.

Clarifying Rules

A few clarifying rules are necessary:

1. What if my opponent sends me to a board that's already been won? In that case, congratulations — you get to go anywhere you like, on any of the other boards. (This means you should avoid sending your opponent to an already-won board!)
2. What if one of the small boards results in a tie? It is recommended that the board count for neither X nor O. But, if you feel like a crazy variant, you could agree before the game to count a tied board for both X and O.

That's Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe. Go play!