How to beat anyone (Who doesn’t know how to think) at Tic-Tac-Toe

Tic-Tac-Toe – Simply Simple

Tic-Tac-Toe is a simple game that nearly everyone has played. As a short refresher, the game is played by two players on a 3x 3 grid, like so:

Tic-Tac-Toe Board

There are two, basic pieces that can be placed on the board, X s and O s (in referring to these pieces, many authors have chosen to use apostrophes, such as “X’s”. I have chosen to refrain from doing so in order to prevent me from hating myself.)

X and O – Ze Pieces

X lays the first piece, and then O follows. The goal of the game is to achieve three of your pieces in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

It is customary to draw a violent strike through the board when you win.

If there are any further questions regarding the rules of Tic-Tac-Toe, please find one of the many examples of tutorials available online such as this one or this one.

Strategy:

As the game is so very simple, there is one major point of strategy that you must have in order to stand a reasonable chance of winning a game against even a brand-new player, child, dog with some humanlike qualities, or imaginary friend- you must take the center square.

Seriously.

If you are playing Tic-Tac-Toe to win (and why wouldn’t you be?) there is no reason -NOT- to take the middle square first every time. Out of the 8 possible ways to win (3 horizontal, 3 vertical, and 2 diagonal), fully half of them pass through the middle square. Taking the middle cuts your opponent’s ways to win in half, while giving you total access to that half. We’re going to move forward assuming that whichever player went first took the middle square first, because if they didn’t they don’t know how to do brain things anyway.

No, you idiot. No.

Assuming that x takes the middle square with the first move, there are only two moves that O can respond with. You may be thinking that there are 8 other squares, and that O can move to any one of them, but you’re wrong. There are two.

Two.

The board is symmetrical, so any move O can make has the same exact effect as playing in one of the two places illustrated above. Any move played in a corner produces a rotationally identical position to any other move played in a corner, meaning that the effect on the game is exactly the same even though the position looks different. Similarly, all moves played to a side produce rotationally identical position.

All the same.

So, of these two moves, which should O pick? Do you think it is the corner square or the mid square? Take a guess. Mid square? Well, let’s see how that turns out for O:

Do you see how screwed O is at the end of this? Do you think O realizes how bad his choices are? Does he wish he could take a few things back in his childhood, or at least on move 2?

Obviously, the side square is a shitty place to play.

Well, that only leaves one option here, which would be sufficient if this wasn’t a Tic-Tac-Toe strategy guide.

In both cases, each player has wasted his or her time.

The options expressed by the above diagram are not the absolute only ways that games can go, but they all end in cat’s games (draws) without massive screwups by someone.

The one other option (The Dixson Gambit):

Though the center square is certainly the most important square in Tic-Tac-Toe, there is another first move you can make that threatens to win without allowing a chance to lose, and that move is one of the corner squares:

Ze Dixson Gambit

The idea of this move is most attractive when playing against a random number generator or an opponent who is feeling particularly bored with playing games of Tic-Tac-Toe that start with someone playing in the center. The only response for O which doesn’t result in a win for X is, again, the center square. Every other square loses quickly, as follows:

Center Draws

Near Mid Loses for O

Near Corner Loses for O

Far Mid Loses for O

Opposite Corner Loses for O

So, the mainstream strategy for beating someone who can think one move ahead at Tic-Tac-Toe can be summarized as:

Play the middle square if you’re X, then get them to play the middle side square as O.

And Dixson’s Gambit allows us to:

start  in the corner and risk nothing while hoping the opponent doesn’t play in the center to block.

Even in this second strategy which appears to neglect the center square to begin with, the center square is of paramount importance. It is an invitation to ignore the center and lose, or take the center and draw.

As promised in the title, however, the strategy for beating someone who can’t think at the game can be summarized as follows:

If they can’t even think and it’s that important that you win, just lie to them about the rules. Even though they can’t think- even if they play completely at random, you’ll draw games a fair amount of the time.

Bonus round time:

It is obvious to many people that Tic-Tac-Toe is a game in which there is no way to win if you have two motivated, rational players. It does, however introduce at least two topics that will be of great use going forward here at Gaming Games:

Prophylaxis – The idea that your moves reduce the options that your opponent has…

            Seen in Tic-Tac-Toe because each move you make not only takes away that square from the opponent, but also reduces the number of possible winning lines for them.

and

Tempo-           The idea that the person who gets to make the first move often has an advantage in games.

             Seen in Tic-Tac-Toe because the first player is the only one with a chance to win. His initial advantage is large, but not decisive, since he cannot force a win. Next week we’ll see a game in which the first player’s initiative IS decisive.

Thanks a lot, readers, and we’ll see you Monday with the second installment of Gaming Games.

Please

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