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Tic Tac Toe

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Awards for Tic Tac Toe

  • Immovable Hold the Tic Tac Toe computer to a draw on Hard. Needs: a draw on Hard Locked

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About Tic Tac Toe

Updated 21 Sept 2026

Three levels, including one that cannot be beaten.

Tic tac toe is the first game most people learn and the first one most people outgrow, usually within an afternoon of discovering that a careful player can never be beaten. That is not a flaw in the game — it is the whole reason it is worth knowing.

Nine squares, two marks, three in a line. It is small enough that a person can hold every consequence in their head, which makes it the shortest possible lesson in the thing every strategy game is really about: creating two threats when your opponent can only answer one. Learn the fork and you have learned the idea that chess players spend decades refining.

The opponent here has three levels, and a two-player mode for passing the phone. Easy genuinely blunders, which makes it useful if you are teaching someone. Hard searches the entire game tree to the last move and cannot be beaten from either side — every game against it ends in a draw if you play correctly, and in a loss the moment you do not.

Also searched for as

  • tic tac toe online
  • tick tack toe
  • noughts and crosses
  • xs and os
  • tictactoe

Whichever name you know it by, it is the same game: it runs in this browser, with no download and no sign-up.

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How to play Tic Tac Toe

5 steps
  1. Take turns placing your mark in one of the nine squares. You are circles; the computer is crosses.
  2. Get three of your marks in a line — across, down, or diagonally — and you win.
  3. Fill the board with no line and the game is a draw, which is what most well-played games end in.
  4. Choose Easy, Medium or Hard. Easy makes real mistakes; Hard searches the whole game and makes none at all. Or switch to 2 players and take turns on one device.
  5. New game swaps who moves first, because going first is a genuine advantage.

Strategy that actually helps

5 tips
  • Take the centre if it is free. It sits on four of the eight possible lines — more than any other square — and against a weak opponent it wins on its own.
  • If the computer takes the centre, take a corner. Corners sit on three lines each; edges sit on only two and are the weakest squares on the board.
  • Look for a move that creates two threats at once. A single threat is always blocked; two cannot both be, and that fork One move that makes two threats at once. Only one of them can be answered. is the only way to beat a competent opponent.
  • Block immediately when your opponent has two in a line. There is no move worth more than not losing this turn.
  • Against Hard, a draw is a win. It searches the whole game tree, so it never misses a fork of yours and never offers one of its own — the best available result is a draw, every time.

Controls

Mouse, keyboard, touch

Mouse and keyboard

  • Click any empty square to place your mark.
  • Use the Easy / Medium / Hard control above the board to change difficulty between games.
  • Undo takes back your last move and the computer's reply.

Touch

  • Tap any empty square. Every square is a full-size touch target.
  • Tap New game to start again with the first move swapped.

Questions

5 answered

Is this tic tac toe game free?
Yes, completely. No download, no account and no payment. It runs in your browser and starts the moment the page loads.

Can you beat the Hard level?
No, and that is not a boast — tic tac toe is a solved game. Hard searches every possible continuation to the end, so it never loses. The best result available against it is a draw, from either side.

Who goes first?
You do on the first game, and New game alternates it afterwards. Going first is a real advantage in tic tac toe, so alternating is the only fair way to play a series.

Can I play tic tac toe against a friend?
Yes. Switch the Opponent control above the board to Two players and take turns on one device — no sign-up, nothing to wait for. Against the computer there are three levels; the hardest one has solved the game and cannot be beaten.

Why is a draw so common?
Because with correct play from both sides, a draw is the true result. There are only 255,168 possible games, and the game has been completely solved — every one of them ends in a draw unless somebody errs.