Connect Four

Classic Connect Four for two players

This Connect Four board runs entirely in your browser. Pass the device between players for a quick head-to-head game—no accounts, no downloads, and no waiting for a server to build the grid.

The board is the standard seven columns by six rows. Gravity does the work: a disc falls as far as it can in the column you choose, so the bottom row fills first and the board builds upward from there. That single rule is what gives the game its tactics—every disc you play changes where the next disc in that column will land.

Rules of Connect Four

• Players take turns dropping one disc per turn into a column.
• A win is any four discs of the same color in an unbroken line: horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.
• A full column cannot be played—choose a different one until every column is full.
• If the board fills with no four-in-a-row, the game is a draw. On a 42-cell board, draws are rare between attacking players.

Connect Four strategy

The single most important habit is to control the centre columns. A disc in the middle of the board is part of more possible lines than one in the corner: the centre column participates in vertical, both diagonal, and horizontal patterns, while an edge column participates in almost none.

Before you play, count the threats. If your opponent has three in a row with an open square on either end, they have two winning moves and you can only block one—so avoid creating that position in the first place. The mirror of this is the double threat: place a disc so it completes three in a row in two directions at once, and your opponent cannot stop both.

Building a hidden line is stronger than an obvious one. Stagger your discs diagonally so that a single drop completes two separate three-in-a-rows on the same turn. Players who only look at the current row tend to miss these until the winning disc is already falling.

Common mistakes

The most frequent error is playing a column that hands the opponent the win. Dropping a disc directly on top of an opponent's two-in-a-row often creates the exact height they need to complete a diagonal—before you play, check whether the square you are about to occupy gives them a free move.

The second mistake is treating Connect Four as pure offence. If you have no winning threat this turn, the second-best play is usually the one that removes your opponent's best reply. Blocking is not passive: a turn spent denying a double threat is often worth more than a turn spent extending a line they can already see.

Related games

Prefer a smaller grid? Try Tic-Tac-Toe for a three-in-a-row game that finishes in a minute, or number puzzle 2048 when you want something solo.