How to play Dots and Boxes: rules, chains and how to beat ComCom

Dots and Boxes needs nothing but a grid of dots, which is why so many of us played it on the last page of an exercise book. On ComCom Games it is a friendly: play ComCom on Easy, Medium or Hard, or send a friend a link from Friendlies.

What are the rules?

• The board is a grid of dots, 5 boxes by 5. Take turns drawing one line between two dots next to each other.
• Draw the fourth side of a box and it is yours, marked in your color, and you draw again straight away. One line can close two boxes at once.
• When every box is closed, whoever has more boxes wins. There are 25, so there is never a draw.
• Each player has 5 minutes in total. If yours runs out, you lose.

How do you win more often?

• Never draw the third side of a box early on. It hands that box to your opponent.
• Late in the game every line gives something away, and the boxes join up into chains. Count them before you move.
• When your opponent opens a long chain, take every box but the last two, then draw the line that leaves those two for them. They take two boxes and must open the next chain for you.
• That trick, giving away two boxes to keep control, is how strong players win, and ComCom on Hard knows it.

Does it pay ComCom Coins?

Yes. Every win earns ComCom Coins, up to a daily limit, like every friendly, and counts on the Friendlies tab of the Leaderboard.