How to play Five in a Row

1 player vs computer, or 2 online

Line up five of your own stones before your opponent does, in any direction, on a fifteen-by-fifteen board where a stone may go on any empty square.

The rules, step by step

1. 1

   Tap an empty square to aim at it. A faint stone and a crosshair show where you are pointing.

2. 2

   Tap the same square again to place your stone there. Tapping anywhere else just moves the aim.

3. 3

   Players alternate, one stone per turn. A stone is never moved or removed once it is down.

4. 4

   Five of your own stones in an unbroken line wins, horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

5. 5

   A line of six or more wins too. There is no penalty here for overshooting.

6. 6

   If all two hundred and twenty-five squares fill with nobody lined up, the game is drawn. In practice this almost never happens.

Three tips that change how you play

• Play near the centre. A stone on the edge sits in far fewer possible lines than one in the middle, and the opening is decided by which side has more lines still alive.
• Count open ends, not stones. Three in a row with an empty square at each end forces a reply. Three with one end blocked can be ignored. That distinction is most of the game.
• Watch for the move that makes two threats at once. A single open three can always be answered. Two of them sharing a stone cannot.

The double threat

Suppose you have three stones in a row with empty squares at both ends. That is an open three, and your opponent has to block one end this turn or you make an open four next turn, which cannot be stopped at all. So they block, and you have gained a tempo and nothing else. Now suppose instead the square you were about to play sits on a diagonal where you already have two stones with open ends. Playing it makes the horizontal three and a diagonal three at the same time. Your opponent gets one block. Whichever line they choose, you extend the other into an open four, and an open four has two winning squares against their one stone. That is a double threat, and it is how almost every game between two players who both know the rules is decided.

Three mistakes that cost beginners the game

Blocking every line the opponent starts.

A closed three is not a threat, and answering it hands over the initiative for nothing. Check whether the line still has two open ends before you spend a move on it. If it does not, leave it and build your own.

Building one long line and pushing it as far as it will go.

A single line, however long, is stopped by one stone at each end. Wins come from two lines that cross. Build shapes that overlap, so that answering one of them creates the other.

Treating a line as broken because there is a hole in it.

Stone, gap, stone, stone is a four, not a pair of twos. The empty square in the middle is the winning square, and it is the threat players miss most often in both directions.

Common questions about Five in a Row