Dots

How to play

These are the same rules as in the game itself, word for word, and the same pictures as its “How to play” lesson.

Ten points

  1. The game opens with the cross — four dots in the middle of the board: a 2×2 square with the colours on the diagonals. On a 39×32 board those are 20-16, 21-16, 21-17, 20-17; on any board the cross's bottom-left intersection is ⌈w/2⌉-⌈h/2⌉. The cross can be turned off in settings.
  2. Players then take turns placing one dot at a time on the grid intersections. The colours are blue and red; blue moves first.
  3. Your dots connect to neighbouring dots of the same colour in 8 directions: ↔︎ ↕︎ and diagonally.
  4. If a move forms a closed loop with your opponent's dots inside, those dots are captured and the enclosed area is shaded.
  5. You cannot place dots inside captured territory. An empty loop does not claim territory, but an opponent's dot placed inside it is captured immediately.
  6. A captured dot is out of play. It stays on the board and still counts towards the score, but it is no longer part of any chain, either yours or your opponent's. A neighbouring active dot of the same colour does not connect through it: a loop with a captured link is not closed. You cannot place a new dot in its place either — that spot is already inside captured territory.
  7. A larger loop absorbs smaller ones, its own and the opponent's. Whoever encloses the larger territory owns the dots captured inside it; the previous owner loses those points.
  8. Dots on the edge of the board cannot be surrounded.
  9. The score is the number of the opponent's dots you have captured.
  10. The game ends when the board is full, or when the trailing player can no longer level the score even in theory: not even by capturing every one of the leader's dots that is not connected to the edge.

Coordinates: X runs left to right, Y bottom to top. The bottom-left intersection is 1-1, the top-right 39-32.

What it looks like on the board

Each picture is the last frame of an episode from the game’s lesson; the score beneath it is counted by the game itself.

The start

The start

This is the cross. Players now take turns, with blue moving first.

The first capture

The first capture

Closed. Dots captured: 1. The score is 1:0.

A bigger area

A bigger area

Dots captured this time: 3. The score is 0:3.

No dots inside a capture

No dots inside a capture

And of course, you cannot place a dot on top of a captured dot either.

A captured dot is out of play

A captured dot is out of play

You cannot place a new dot there either — that spot is already inside captured territory. The chain can never be closed.

The edge of the board

The edge of the board

Red has surrounded it on every available side — and captured nothing. The score is 0:0.

Recapturing territory

Recapturing territory

Red has closed the outer ring and taken 7 — blue's whole chain along with everything blue had captured. The score is 0:8.

Who wins

Who wins

Those are all the rules. The rest is the game.

How long a match lasts

In a single game, play goes on while there is room to play and the trailing player can still level the score. In the championship a match has a move limit in one of three formats:

Express

240 moves

Shorter matches; more of them are decided at the whistle.

Extended

360 moves

Longer matches; the team that was ahead wins more often.

Full

240–720 moves

After move 240 the match goes on until the leader’s advantage is protected.

At the limit, whoever leads wins. A level score is a draw in the group stage and goes to extra time in the knockout stage.

A lead is protected when the trailing player could not catch up even by capturing every one of the leader’s dots not connected to the edge and winning back their own dots from the leader’s territory that is not connected to it.

Here a move is one dot by either player: a 240-move match is 120 dots each.