How do you play Four in a Row?
Two players take turns dropping discs into an upright grid, and the first to line up four discs of their color horizontally, vertically or diagonally wins. It plays exactly like the classic boxed game many people know as Connect Four.
The grid is 7 columns wide and 6 rows tall, 42 spaces in all. Each disc falls to the lowest empty space in its column, so every column has only one playable spot at a time.
What are the rules?
| Grid | 7 columns × 6 rows, 42 spaces |
|---|---|
| Moves | On your turn, pick a column and drop one disc. A full column cannot be played. |
| Winning | Four of your discs in a row across, up and down, or diagonally wins at once. |
| Draw | If all 42 spaces fill up with no line of four, the game is a draw. |
| First move | Against the computer you choose who goes first. In two player games, Yellow starts. |
How do the computer levels differ?
Easy makes the odd mistake, Normal looks a few moves ahead, and Hard searches as deep as it can in its thinking time. Hard uses alpha beta pruning with a transposition table and often reads more than ten moves ahead, so it is tough to beat.
Tips for winning
- Take the center column. Column 4 is part of more horizontal and diagonal lines than any other.
- Build two threats at once. Your opponent can only block one, so a double threat wins.
- Never fill the space right under an enemy threat. That just hands them the winning spot on top.
- Think about odd and even rows. Counting from the bottom, threats on odd rows favor the first player and even rows favor the second player late in the game.
This game is solved. James Dow Allen and Victor Allis independently showed in 1988 that the first player wins with perfect play by starting in the center column. Your record for each level is saved in this browser.