Vying Games : Dots and Boxes | Play Dots and Boxes

Dots and Boxes is a classic pencil and paper game for two players. It's commonly thought of as a children's game but offers surprising strategic depth and is mathematically interesting.

How to Play

At the start of the game the two players face a 6x6 grid of dots. Each player takes turn drawing a horizontal or vertical line between any two adjacent dots. When a player completes a box they win one point and another turn. On a 6x6 grid of dots there are 25 boxes (5x5), so 13 points are necessary to win the game.

Strategy

Much has been written about the strategy and mathematical properties of Dots and Boxes (there's even a book, The Dots-and-Boxes Game: Sophisticated Child's Play by Elwyn R. Berlekamp. Rather than try to explain the chain rule and double crosses, etc, take a look at the very complete guide Mathter of the Game by Ilan Vardi.

About the Bot

Right now CapellaBot is the only bot playing Dots and Boxes. It uses a simple and fairly shallow alphabeta search that evaluates only the score of a position. Depending on the point in the game, it is smart enough to sometimes execute a double cross. It's opening is largely random, and it's midgame is probably particularly weak, though.

Resources

• Dots and Boxes at Wikipedia
• The Dots-and-Boxes Game: Sophisticated Child's Play by Elwyn R. Berlekamp
• Mathter of the Game by Ilan Vardi