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Row
Board · plays in your browser, no download
Drop a piece down a column and make four in a row — upright, flat or slanted. The middle column is worth more than it looks.
Where it comes from
Gomoku, five in a row, from Japan: the board of go and none of its rules. It has been played out to the end — on the free-style board the first player wins — which is why the serious versions add handicaps, and why ours is the plain one for playing rather than for competing.
How to play
- Tap any empty point to place a stone. Nothing falls: you put it where you want it.
- Win with five in a row — upright, flat or slanted. Five or more.
- Three with a free point at both ends is nearly a won game — your opponent can only plug one of them. So block a three before it opens, not after.
- The red ring marks the last stone played, yours or your opponent’s.
- One star only looks at the points touching a stone, so it never sees a row growing two points away. Three stars does, and looks four moves ahead.
What makes this one different
What matters is not how many you have in a row, it is whether the row has open ends: three closed at both ends can never become five and is worth nothing. Three with a free point at either end is nearly a won game, because only one of them can be plugged. So block a three before it opens.