Tic Tac Toe
About the game and how to play
Tic Tac Toe is the classic everyone knows: the first to line up their marks in a row wins. On GameBox.az you can play against an AI that ranges from easy warm-ups to an unbeatable minimax, two players on one device, or in an online room — spectators welcome. Build your own board — anything from 3×3 to 15×15, say 7×11 — and add twists like gravity, obstacles, a random eraser, “only the latest marks” and a bomb to keep every game fresh.
- Players
- 1–8 players
- Category
- Board and card games
- Price
- Free, no download, no sign-up
- Where to play
- In the browser on phone, tablet and computer
Can be played with friends in an online room
How to play
- Pick a mode: vs AI, two players on one device, or online.
- Choose the board (or set your own rows and columns up to 15×15 with Custom), the win length and any twists.
- Take turns placing X or O on an empty square.
- The first to get the required number of marks in a straight line wins.
Tips
- On the classic 3×3 board, open in a corner as X; as O, answer a corner opening by taking the centre, otherwise a careful opponent can force a win.
- Win by setting up a fork: a move that leaves two lines one mark short at the same time, so your opponent can only block one of them.
- With Gravity on, think in columns like Connect Four: before you drop a mark, check that it does not hand your opponent the square above it for a winning line.
- On 4×4 and 5×5 boards with a short win length, open-ended pairs turn dangerous fast, so block them early instead of waiting for a direct threat.
Frequently asked questions
Can you beat the Hard AI?
Not on the 3×3 board: Hard searches every move to the end, so the best you can get there is a draw. On 4×4 and 5×5 it only looks a limited number of moves ahead, so it is not a perfect player on those boards.
What do Gravity, Obstacles and the other twists do?
With Gravity, a mark drops to the lowest free square in its column, as in Connect Four. Obstacles block about one square in nine (1 on 3×3, 3 on 5×5); nobody can use them, and no line can pass through them. The random eraser wipes a random mark every 4, 6 or 8 moves, “only the latest marks” lets each player keep just their last few marks, and the bomb lets each player once blow up a rival mark instead of moving.
Who makes the first move?
X always moves first. Against the AI and in online rematches the symbols swap after every game, so the first move alternates.
How does online Tic Tac Toe work?
The first two players in the room take X and O and everyone else watches live, with up to 8 people per room. The room can use a 15, 30 or 60-second turn timer, where running out of time loses the game, and a scoreboard tracks wins, losses and draws across rematches.