The history of Tic-tac-toe and other things about it, including becoming a better player

Introduction

If you are seeking modalities of becoming a better player at Tic-tac-toe, you just have stumbled upon something that will definitely help you to improve your game, so, let’s begin!

History

Supposedly, the game, has its origins back to Antiquity, where it was often played by the citizens of the Roman Empire around the first century before Christ. Many inscriptions confirm that. But on the other hand, there is another affirmation that the game has its origins back to the Ancient Egypt. Leaving aside, in 1952 the very first computerized version of this game, named OXO appeared.

Now, for becoming a better player at this game we also need to understand it. So, a good question to start with is how many noughts and crosses games are possible in a Tic-tac-toe game? Well, the number is clearly limited, since there are 9 possible ways of placing the first mark, 8 remaining ways of placing the second, 7 the third, all that till you remain with only 1 move at the ninth.

This would be about 362 880 possible moves. Scared? Don’t be. Clearly that number is too high. For example, a game that finishes after the seventh mark with three noughts or crosses in a row would count twice in this figure but should only count once. So, we should expect a lower one.

But the moment you all have been waiting for is coming, strategies of how you can improve your game!

Becoming a better player

Optimal, if you start the game, your first move will be putting X on a corner. Now, there are multiple cases of the first move your opponent could do, 4 to be precise. Also, if your opponent puts anywhere except in the middle, you have already won.

First, I will show you the positions that you can mark:

1) If your opponent writes O in the opposite corner, your next move is putting X on a neighboring corner and like that, bam! You’ve got him.

2) If he writes O in a neighboring corner, put X in the opposite corner, getting him again.

3) If he writes O on a side, put X in the neighboring corner next to it. This feels familiar, don’t you think?

4) If he writes O in the middle, you still have a chance to win by putting X in the opposite corner and if he writes O in a corner too, you have just won, getting him in the trap.

But if you start second, and your opponent knows the cases that I have just shown you, put O in the middle, and if he does this you can put O on the side next to one of his X’s, ending up in a draw, this being the best scenario because it is hard to win this way.

Finale

And like that, you become invincible at tic-tac-toe. What a beautiful and complex game!