Ultimate tic-tac-toe — your move sends them
Nine small games of tic-tac-toe make one large one. Where you play in a small grid decides which small grid your opponent must play in next. Winning a square can mean sending them where they want to go.
From Ultimate tic-tac-toe, a recent variant.
What it shows a designer
Each move has two meanings: a mark here and an instruction to the other player. It shows how linking small games turns a solved children's game into one that rewards foresight.
Credits
- Made by
- Unknown; a recent variant of tic-tac-toe
- Sources
- minimax.dev/docs/ultimate/the-game/
victorz.ca/game/ut3_rules
What you need
- paper with nine small tic-tac-toe grids, arranged in a large 3 by 3 grid
- a pen
How to play
- The board. Draw a large 3 by 3 grid with a small 3 by 3 grid inside each of its nine squares.
- First move. X plays anywhere.
- Where next. The square you played in, within its small grid, names the small grid your opponent must play in next. Top-right square sends them to the top-right grid.
- Small grids. Three in a row wins a small grid; it is then closed. A full small grid with no line is also closed. If you are sent to a closed grid, play in any open one.
- Win. Win three small grids in a row on the large grid. If every grid closes without that, it is a draw.
After playing, talk about
- When did you give away a small grid to control where your opponent went?
- Did you plan two moves ahead?
- How is this different from playing nine games of tic-tac-toe?
Its blocks
Download it as a design (.md)In boardgameBuilder, Open game puts its blocks on the canvas. Changed, the same file can come back here from Propose a game.