Talk:Tic-tac-toe

Example image

Katie Steckles, in this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K29O13EUnZQ) youtube video, shows that the example image at the top of this article shows an extremely suboptimal game of tic-tac-toe. this does not seem fitting for this article. Could somebody please create a better graphic of a more sensible game? Hubris Incalculable (talk) 04:18, 12 June 2025 (UTC)

I played a game and drew it, what do we think?

A completed game of tic-tac-toe

наб (talk) 20:51, 16 June 2025 (UTC)

I think this does at least past the test suggested in the video, of showing a won game that can be reached without obvious mistakes (failing to take an immediate win or failing to block an immediate threat).

A possible sequence of moves that reaches this position: X moves first to one of the left corners; O moves to right middle (a mistake, but not an obvious one); X moves to the other left corner; O blocks; X moves to the middle creating a double threat; O blocks one threat; X wins with the other threat. —David Eppstein (talk) 07:24, 17 June 2025 (UTC)

I created and uploaded an updated version of the graphic with a plausible move order. I only needed to make a small change to the original image to make it plausible (switched box 6 from O to X and remove the X from box 3). Is it a perfect game? No. A perfect game is always a tie. But it has plausible mistakes that a kid at the right age for this game would make, no failing to block or choosing not to win or anything like that. The move order is listed in the image description. Since the original image was listed as public domain, I just modified that rather than remake something from scratch. Sfieldman (talk) 15:14, 18 June 2025 (UTC)

Both of the new images look acceptable. I like yours because I think its hand-drawn style is a better match to the way the game is usually played. Thanks for the update! —David Eppstein (talk) 18:02, 18 June 2025 (UTC)

What is terni lapilli?

Article says:

An early variation of tic-tac-toe was played in the Roman Empire, around the first century BC. It was called terni lapilli (three pebbles at a time) and instead of having any number of pieces, each player had only three; thus, they had to move them around to empty spaces to keep playing. The game's grid markings have been found chalked all over Rome. Another closely related ancient game is three men's morris which is also played on a simple grid and requires three pieces in a row to finish ...

Now, this description of Terni lapilli suggests Three men's morris to me, but at the same time, the wording suggests they are somehow different.

There is one aspect of such games with three pieces each that may differentiate them: When you start moving, can a piece jump to

1. any empty space
2. only to 4-way neighbours (one unit up, down, right, left)
3. to 8-way neighbours (4-way plus squareroot-of-2 units diagonally)
4. or as an intermediate case, suggested by the diagonal lines often drawn in the diagram: 4-way, plus diagonally to and from the centre space only.

Could we be clearer about this? Nø (talk) 09:35, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Proof of Ancient Egyptian game similar to tic-tac-toe

If "games played on three-in-a-row boards can be traced back to ancient Egypt, where such game boards have been found on roofing tiles dating from around 1300 BC," why not provide proof of this in the form of a photo of such Ancient Egyptian game boards? ~2025-32865-45 (talk) 18:18, 28 November 2025 (UTC)

The closest to a photo I can find is https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.69695/page/644 which reproduces in sketch form the game boards found at Kurna. Many of these appear to be for three men's morris, a form of tic-tac-toe described by Ovid in which the rules for making three-in-a-row are the same but each player has only three pieces and must move one of their already-placed pieces on each move after the third. —David Eppstein (talk) 19:50, 28 November 2025 (UTC)

can somone add Exy-Oseys as a name (refferd as this in northan irland)

i just found out about this so can a administrator or someone who has access to editor add this? ~2025-38514-40 (talk) 20:40, 4 December 2025 (UTC)

Not without a reference to a published source. —David Eppstein (talk) 02:48, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

interactive version

Play tic-tac-toe against the computer

Choose whether you want to play X or O (X moves first), and whether your opponent should play randomly or optimally.

You play:  X    O Computer plays:  at random
 optimally

Start a new game

The options above cannot be changed mid-game.

top-left cornertop edgetop-right corner

left edgecenterright edge

bottom-left cornerbottom edgebottom-right corner

Your move — you are X. Click any empty square.

You win! 🎉 Three Xs in a row. Press Start a new game to play again.

The computer wins — three Os in a row. Press Start a new game to try again.

A draw — every square is full and nobody has three in a row. Against optimal play, a draw is the best you can do (tic-tac-toe is a solved game).

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 7 1 2 3 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 5 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Tic-tac-toe: perfect play always draws

X	O	X
X	O	O
O	X	X

A finished game with no three-in-a-row: a draw. When both sides play perfectly — take a winning move, block the opponent, make and block forks, then prefer the center and corners — every game of tic-tac-toe ends like this. Against a random opponent, the same strategy wins easily. An interactive version — choose X or O and how the computer plays — is available with JavaScript enabled.

Hey all. I just added an interactive version of the game to the article. I've been on a bit of an interactivity kick lately, trying to take advantage of the new {{calculator}} capabilities for some basic interactive fun. You can choose X or O, and whether your opponent should play randomly or optimally. Disclosure: I used Claude Code to help wrangle the calculator template syntax. Thoughts? — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 22:28, 31 July 2026 (UTC)

Some text is invisible in dark mode. ~2026-42750-33 (talk) 21:54, 1 August 2026 (UTC)