About Boxes
Born on graph paper.
Boxes started as a pencil diamond on the back page of a school notebook, passed across a table between friends. We kept the shape and put it on a phone.
From the notebook to the phone
Dots and Boxes is usually played on a plain rectangle. One evening someone drew a diamond instead: one square at the top, widening row by row to nine across the middle, then narrowing again to one.
The diamond changes the game. The edges are short and jagged, so chains form quickly and a single careless line can hand over half the board. It rewards counting ahead.
Boxes keeps that feel: two colours, clean lines, and a board that always shows whose turn it is, even from across the table.
Why a diamond
The classic board has 41 boxes in rows of 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 7, 5, 3 and 1. An odd number of boxes means a game can never end in a tie, and the narrow tips create long chains that decide most games.
The rules
- 01Players take turns drawing one line between two neighbouring dots.
- 02If your line closes the fourth side of a box, the box is yours and you play again.
- 03A single line can close two boxes at once.
- 04If your line closes nothing, the turn passes.
- 05The game ends when every box is claimed. Most boxes wins.
“We still argue about who gave away the long chain.”
A table of friends, one game.
Start a game
Play online, challenge a friend with a code, or share one phone.