Strategy · Human vs computerUltimate Tic-Tac-Toe,
Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe,
nine boards, one game.
Every move you make decides which board your opponent plays in next. Win three small boards in a line to take the grid.
- Record (W-L-D)
- 0-0-0
You · XvsComputer · O
Your turn
About the gameHow Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe works,
How Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe works,
in short.
- Step 01
Nine little boards in one big board.
Win a small board the usual way — three of your marks in a row. Win the whole game by winning three small boards that line up across the big board. You play X and move first; the computer plays O.
- Step 02
Your move sends your rival to a board.
Where you play inside a small board decides which big-board cell your opponent must play in next. Play the top-right square and they're sent to the top-right board — shown here ringed in green.
- Step 03
Sent to a finished board? Play anywhere.
If the board you're sent to is already won or full, you get a free move in any open board instead. Keep steering the play until you line up three boards — that wins it.
Questions
Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe questions, answered.
Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe is tic-tac-toe nested inside itself: a big 3×3 board where each cell is its own small 3×3 game. You win a small board with three in a row, and you win the whole game by winning three small boards that form a line on the big board. It turns a solved children's game into one with real strategy.
You play X and move first. Tap any cell in a highlighted board to place your mark. The catch: the cell you choose decides which board your opponent must play in next — top-left cell sends them to the top-left board, and so on. The computer (O) replies, and play passes back and forth until someone lines up three boards.
Then you get a free move: you may play in any open board you like. This happens whenever the target board has already been won or completely filled. Because of this rule, a big part of the strategy is steering your opponent toward dead boards — or avoiding handing them a free choice.
Yes — each small board you win claims that cell of the big board for you, and three claimed cells in a line wins the game. A small board that fills up with no winner is a draw and counts for neither player on the big board, but it still blocks that big-board line for both sides.
Think a move ahead about where your mark sends your opponent — winning a small square is pointless if it hands your rival the board they need. The center board and the center cell of each board are valuable, and forcing your opponent into already-won boards (giving you the free move back) is a powerful tempo trick.
Easy plays quick, beatable moves and only grabs an obvious winning line. Medium and Hard search several moves ahead with alpha-beta pruning, weighing small-board wins, big-board threats, and which board each move sends you to. Hard reads deeper, so it punishes loose play — but it always moves promptly.
Yes. Your wins, losses, and draws are kept per difficulty in your browser's local storage, shown as a W-L-D record in the header. Nothing leaves your device, and you can wipe it any time by clearing the site's storage.
Yes. The nested board scales down to fit a phone, the board you're allowed to play in is highlighted so you always know where your move lands, and the new-game and opponent controls stay in the toolbar across every screen size.
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