Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Philipp Quach
October 27, 2016
Abstract A hopefully easy to understand guide on Dots
and Boxes strategy covering basics as well as more advanced
knowledge.
C ONTENTS
I
Introduction
I-A
Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I-B
The third wall . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I-C
Multi-captures . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
1
1
1
II
Strategy basics
II-A
Doublecross-strategy . . . . . . . . . .
II-B
The long-chain-rule . . . . . . . . . .
1
1
2
III
Formalities
III-A
Technical terms . . . . . . . . . . . .
III-B
Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
3
3
Advanced strategy
IV-A
Preventing chains . . . . . . .
IV-B
Preemptive Sacrifices . . . . .
IV-C
Dividing the board . . . . . . .
IV-D
Indirect chains, wasting moves
IV-E
Ladders and edge moves
loops/merge regions . . . . . .
4
4
5
5
6
IV
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
. . . .
force
. . . .
Expert
V-A
V-B
V-C
strategy
Balance second player approach . .
Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Visual approach to nim . . . . . . . .
8
8
9
10
VI
Extra
VI-A
VI-B
14
14
15
I. I NTRODUCTION
Dots and Boxes is a game that many people probably
remember having played in school, yet very few know that
it involves any strategy at all. While theres lots of math to
Dots and Boxes this guide shall focus merely on aspects that
are relevant for playing the game and deliver them short and
simple.
A. Rules
On a grid of dots, players take turns drawing lines from
one dot to another horizontally or vertically adjacent dot. In
the process of doing so they will draw the walls of boxes.
Drawing the fourth wall of a box will earn the player a point
and forces him to draw another line. The player with the most
points wins.
Turn1 : 34
Score: 0-0
Turn: 36
Turn: 35
B. The long-chain-rule
X won previous endgame by using doublecross-strategy,
O lost as he had to play into either 5 or 20-chain not having
any chance to defend himself. We conclude that we dont
want to be the player who has to play into a chain first,
because if we do then doublecross-strategy will be used
against us. This leads us to the question answered by the
long-chain-rule: How can we avoid having to play into a
long-chain first?
The long-chain-rule for the 5x5 game of Dots and
Boxes states that if the number of long-chains is even
player 2 will have to play the first move into a long chain
and that if the number of long-chains is odd it will be
player 1. In other words: Player 1 should aim to build an
even number of long-chains, while player 2 should aim
to build an odd number of long-chains. Our previous
endgame had two long-chains, an even number, hence it was
O, player 2, who had to play into one of the long-chains.
Not all regions count as long-chains, a chain is long if its
length is 3 otherwise its a short-chain and then theres
loops. A more realistic endgame position could look like
this:
Score: 5-0
He just took the five boxes and played into the 20-chain. O
will take those 20 boxes and win the game. However, there
is a better move!
Turn: 35
Score: 3-0
Instead of taking all five boxes he uses the all but 2-trick
finishing his move early as the dashed line does not complete
a box. X loses two boxes by letting O doublecross two boxes
of the 5-chain but gets the entire 20-chain in return.
1 Turn
Score: 3-2
Turn: 30
Score: 0-0
Turn: 31
Score: 0-0
Turn: 32
Score: 0-1
Turn: 32
Score: 0-1
Turn: 33
Score: 0-1
Score: 2-1
III. F ORMALITIES
Player 1 has now played into the loop. Similarly to the
all but 2-trick for chains theres an all but 4-trick for
loops:
Domino
Turn: 34
Score: 2-3
Player 1 will now take his 4 boxes, but is the one who
has to play into a chain first which happens as according to
the long-chain-rule. A curiosity however is that if the loop
wouldve been taken completely, without applying the all
but 4-trick to it, it would have been player 2 playing into
the first long-chain. Loops do not count as chains, but every
loop that gets taken completely without having the all
but 4-trick applied to it inverts the long-chain-rule!
Sacrifice
Loony move
B. Notation
Showing a position as a picture takes a lot of space, further
on a notation will be used to tell which moves are played
in order to skip showing every trivial turn. The notation that
i6
f3
Turn: 32.b5
Score: 2-0
2
b
A. Preventing chains
We are taking a look at following position:
Turn: 32.a10
Turn: 29
Score: 0-0
Turn: 30.b9
Score: 0-0
Turn: 32.d1
Score: 0-0
Score: 0-0
Turn: 33.c2
Score: 0-0
Turn: 28.e4
Score: 0-7
B. Preemptive Sacrifices
Given the position:
Turn: 30.tf1
Turn: 27
Score: 0-7
Turn: 34.tk4+
Turn: 27+
Score: 1-9
Prediction: 11-14
Prediction: 14-11
Turn: 56
Score: 0-0
Score: 0-0
Turn: 11.h1
Score: 0-0
Possibility 1
Score: 0-0
Possibility 2
wasted
Turn: 2.f1
Score: 0-0
11
13
12
16
14
10
7
17
9
7
8
4
3
Turn: 10.j3
10
15
Turn: 17.i6
Score: 0-0
Score: 0-0
13
10
7
12
11
Turn: 13.f11
Score: 0-0
V. E XPERT STRATEGY
A. Balance second player approach
Turn: 6.e8
Score: 0-0
6.e8 has been played, trying to split the board into three
parts. Now it is the turn of player 1 and he wants not three
but two chains and in order to accomplish that he will now
attack the top left region trying to force it into either turning
into a loop or connecting with the bottom or top right region.
He decides to play the edge move 7.a6. The following moves
could be 8.c4 9.b5 10.c8 11.d11 12.b9 13.c10 14.f9 15.h3
16.g10 17.i6.
Turn: 9.b7
Score: 0-0
And finally 8.c6 and 9.b7 have been played for known
reasons. All those moves played by player 1 were used in
order to prevent a third chain, player 2 however is now taking
the opposite direction not aiming for three but for one chain
and all those moves played make this very easy. Heres an
example of how the game could continue:
16
Turn: 3.e2
12
13
Score: 0-0
10
11
15
14
18
17
Turn: 9.b7
Score: 0-0
Turn: 5.i2
Score: 0-0
B. Openings
Turn: 7.b3
Score: 0-0
For the very first move theres nine different lines you
can choose from if you exclude the identical mirrored and
rotated versions.
9
3
1
Turn: 4.d9
Score: 0-0
Turn: 22
Score: 0-0
An example
A well played opening could be 1.f5 2.f9 3.g6 4.d9.
10
Score: 0-0
Turn: 30
Score: 0-0
Turn: 28
Score: 0-0
minimal: 0
minimal: 0
Turn: 28
Score: 0-0
minimal: 0
minimal: 0
11
Step 1:
The minimal number of chains is 1.
minimal: 0
minimal: 1
Type 2 includes:
Turn: 25
Score: 0-0
Step 2:
minimal: 0
Type 1
Type 1
minimal: 0
Type 1
Turn: 25
Score: 0-0
Turn: 25
Score: 0-0
Turn: 26.k10
Score: 0-0
Step 3:
Step 4.a:
Example 4.a
Score: 0-0
12
Example 4.b
Example 4.c
Turn: 27
Score: 0-0
Turn: 27
Step 1:
The minimal number of chains is 2
Turn: 27
Score: 0-0
Step 1:
The minimal number of chains is 2
Score: 0-0
Turn: 27
Step 2:
Score: 0-0
Step 2:
Turn: 27
Type 2
Type 1
Type 2
Type 2
Score: 0-0
Step 3:
Turn: 27
Score: 0-0
Turn: 27
Score: 0-0
Step 3:
Turn: 27
Score: 0-0
Step 4.b:
Player 1 wins because the minimal number of chains is 2
and after step 3 there is no undecided region left. Taking a
look at the position one can see that there is no spot where
player 2 wants to play.
Step 4.c:
Player 2 wins because the minimal number of chains is 2
and after step 3 there is two undecided regions left. Taking
a look at the position one can see that player 2 has a move
that doesnt cause him any trouble.
13
Turn: 28.j11
Score: 0-0
Turn: 5.k8
Score: 0-0
Turn: 8
Score: 0-0
B. Mirroring
Turn: 12
Turn: 12; 14
Turn: 6
Score: 0-0
Turn: 6
Score: 0-0
Score: 0-0
Score: 0-0
Turn: 7.e6
15
Score: 0-0