# Ultimate tic-tac-toe — your move sends them

- From: Ultimate tic-tac-toe, a recent variant
- Players: 2 players
- Time: 10–15 min
- Made by: Unknown; a recent variant of tic-tac-toe

Made with boardgameBuilder 0.14.4. To design from it, open boardgameBuilder and choose Open game: its blocks go on the canvas, and the feelings are left for you to pick.

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.

## 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.

## What you need

- paper with nine small tic-tac-toe grids, arranged in a large 3 by 3 grid
- a pen

## How to play

1. **The board.** Draw a large 3 by 3 grid with a small 3 by 3 grid inside each of its nine squares.
2. **First move.** X plays anywhere.
3. **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.
4. **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.
5. **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?

## Where the rules are written down

- https://minimax.dev/docs/ultimate/the-game/
- https://victorz.ca/game/ut3_rules

## Its blocks

- Core mechanic: pattern building
- Player interaction: direct confrontation
- Chance or skill: mostly skill
- Theme: abstract
- Information visibility: full information
- Timing: take turns

## Saved state

boardgameBuilder reads this part back when the file is opened.

```json
{"mechanics": {"core-mechanic": ["pattern-building"], "player-interaction": "direct-confrontation", "chance-skill": "mostly-skill", "information": "full-information", "theme": "abstract", "timing": ["take-turns"]}, "chosenFeelings": [], "previousMechanics": {}, "previousFeelings": [], "turnNumber": 0, "locked": false, "turnHistory": [], "answers": {}, "tests": {}}
```