Four in a Row

How to play

Four in a Row is played on a grid seven columns wide and six rows tall, standing on end like a rack. You are red and go first; the computer or your opponent is yellow. Tap a column to drop your disc into it — a disc always falls to the lowest empty space in that column, so you're choosing which column, not which exact square.

Get four of your discs in an unbroken line — horizontally, vertically, or diagonally in either direction — and you win immediately. If all forty-two spaces fill without either player connecting four, the game is a draw.

Playing the computer, or a friend

The computer opponent looks ahead a fixed number of moves and judges each position by counting open lines of its own discs while watching for yours — a line that's already blocked by an opposing disc at either end earns nothing, so a wall of yellow discs with no way to extend is not a threat. Easy looks only a couple of moves ahead and will miss a developing trap. Medium and hard search considerably deeper and are difficult to catch out with anything but a genuinely strong plan.

Switching the opponent to two players passes the same board back and forth on one device, with no computer involved. Your game is saved in this browser as you play, so closing the tab does not cost you the position.

Tips for a stronger game

Play the center column early. A disc in the middle takes part in more possible four-in-a-rows than one on an edge — horizontal lines through it, the vertical line above it, and two diagonals — so contesting the center is close to always correct in the opening.

Watch for a move that creates two different ways to make four in a row at once. A single threat can always be blocked by the one disc that sits in its way, but a double threat forces your opponent to choose which line to give up — and whichever they leave open, you take.

Count parity in the endgame. Because a disc has to land on top of whatever is already in its column, some winning squares can only be reached after a specific number of discs have filled that column — in a game that runs down to the last few squares, the outcome often comes down to who is forced to open up a particular column, not who wants to play there.