Directory of Dots and Boxes Resources

Home > Games > Paper and Pencil > Dots and Boxes

Abstract combinatorial game, usually played on paper, learned by many during childhood. Start with a grid of dots, and two players take turns drawing lines between two dots adjacent horizontally or vertically. Completing a 1x1 box gains a point and another turn. It turns out to be quite an interesting and difficult game mathematically and computationally.

Resources in This Category

• Dots-and-Boxes Analysis

  http://wilson.engr.wisc.edu/boxes/
  Analysis program and results.

• Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics: Dots and Boxes

  http://mathworld.wolfram.com/DotsandBoxes.html
  Entry with rules, basic strategy, and references.

• Talk by Katherine Scott: Loony Dots and Boxes Endgame

  http://www.msri.org/realvideo/ln/msri/2000/gametheory/scott/1/
  Streaming-video 30-minute talk held at MSRI during the Combinatorial Game Theory Research Workshop, July 24-28, 2000. Describes a particular type of endgame which arises frequently in practice and can be solved in polynomial time.

 

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