Tic-Tac-Toe: Play Free Against the Computer, a Friend or Online
Play tic-tac-toe free against the computer at three levels, a friend on the same device or someone online (as a guest or on the Hive blockchain), with 15 variants: classic, misère, wild, numerical, 4 × 4, gomoku, drop four, ultimate tic-tac-toe, 3D Qubic, Notakto, Order & Chaos and your own board size.
Keys: arrows + Enter play a cell, N new game, U undo, H hint, W fill window, F full screen. Your games and settings stay in this browser.
Play someone online as a guest
No account needed. Make a game and send the link to a friend, or pick an open game from the list below. The game is the one chosen on the Play tab.
Game:
Open games
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Play on Hive
Every move is signed with your Hive account (the Hive Keychain extension or the Keychain phone app) and kept on the Hive blockchain for good. No mes.fm server decides anything: both browsers read the moves from the chain and check them with the same rules. A move takes about 3 to 6 seconds to reach the other player, and it costs no HIVE (only a little of your account's free Resource Credits).
Game: · who goes first: the setting above.
Empty = an open game anyone on Hive can join from the list below (it stays open for an hour). With a name, only that account can join: send them the link.
Open Hive games
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My Hive games
Guest online games are kept on mes.fm's server for a few hours, then deleted. Only the game itself and the names you type are stored. Hive games are public and permanent, like everything on Hive; mes.fm only keeps a short list of open Hive games so players can find each other.
Kept in this browser only (nothing is uploaded). Games left unfinished are not counted.
Tic-tac-toe with fifteen ways to play
Play classic noughts and crosses against the computer or a friend, then try the variants: misère (where three in a row loses), wild tic-tac-toe, numerical tic-tac-toe, bigger boards with four or five in a row, gomoku, a gravity game where pieces drop, ultimate tic-tac-toe, 3D Qubic, Notakto and Order & Chaos. You can also make your own board: any size from 3 × 3 to 19 × 19, up to four layers, three to seven in a row. Nothing to install and no account.
How strong is the computer?
- Easy
- Mostly plays at random, and only sometimes notices that it can win. Good for young children.
- Medium
- Always takes a win and always stops yours when it can, but otherwise often plays a harmless move instead of the best one.
- Hard
- On small boards it works out the game to the end, so on the classic 3 × 3 board it never loses. On bigger boards it searches several moves ahead and weighs every possible line; on ultimate tic-tac-toe, Notakto and Order & Chaos it plays out thousands of random games from each possible move and picks the one that wins most often. It thinks in the background, so the page never freezes.
Questions
- Can you always win at tic-tac-toe?
- No. If both players make no mistakes the classic game is always a draw. You can only win when the other player slips, which is why the Hard computer never loses it. Bigger boards are different: on 4 × 4 with three in a row, the first player can always force a win.
- What is the best first move?
- On the classic board the centre and the corners are both fine; an edge is the riskiest start but still a draw with good play. Against a beginner, a corner gives them the most ways to go wrong.
- How does online play work?
- Make a game, send the link, and the board updates for both of you within a second or two. Moves are checked on mes.fm's server so nobody can cheat or play out of turn. If the other player disappears for three minutes on their turn you can claim the win.
- What does "Play on Hive" do?
- It plays the game on the Hive blockchain: each move is a small signed message (a custom_json operation with the id mes_ttt) from your Hive account, so the whole game and its result are public and kept for good, and nobody, not even mes.fm, can change them. You need a Hive account and Hive Keychain. In the Keychain extension you can tick "don't ask again" for this kind of operation on mes.fm, so moves go out with one click or none.
- Is there an undo?
- Yes, against the computer and against a friend on the same device (not in online games). The Hint button shows the Hard computer's choice for your move.
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