How to play
Gomoku
Gomoku (five in a row) is played on the points of a 15 × 15 grid. Black and White take turns placing one stone each; whoever first lines up five stones in a row of their colour, across, down or diagonally, wins.
Start
- The board starts empty and Black moves first (usually on the centre point, h8).
- Each turn, place one stone on any empty point. Stones never move and are never captured.
Winning and draws
- The first player to make five in a row wins at once; this site rings the winning line in gold.
- If the board fills up and nobody has five, the game is a draw.
Two rules (choose one for each new game)
| Free-style | Five or more in a row wins (six or seven in a row win too). |
|---|---|
| Standard | Exactly five: a line of six or more does not win (for both players) and play goes on; the site says so and rings that row in dashed grey. |
Tips
- A four needs one more stone to make five, so it must be blocked at once; an open four (both ends empty) cannot be stopped.
- An open three (three in a row with both ends empty) becomes an open four next turn, so block it early.
- The usual way to win is a double threat, such as a four and an open three in one move: only one of them can be blocked.
- Moving first is an advantage; play White when you want a harder game.
Computer levels
| Easy | Looks one move ahead and blocks almost every time, but slips now and then. Good for practice. |
|---|---|
| Medium | Thinks two or three moves ahead and spots short winning attacks made of fours. |
| Hard | Searches deeply for its full time, finds wins by continuous fours and stops you from doing the same. |
On a touch screen with close points (a phone): tap once to see where the stone goes, then tap the same point again to place it. A tablet with wide points places with a single tap.