How to Play Four Connect: Rules and Tips to Connect Four in a Row

The board and the chips

The board is a standing grid with seven columns and six rows, so it holds 42 chips in all. One player uses red chips and the other uses yellow chips. You cannot place a chip on a space directly. You choose a column and the chip falls to the lowest empty space in it.

How a turn works

Players take turns, and you only ever make one decision: which column to drop your chip into.

1. Choose a column that still has room.
2. Your chip falls to the lowest empty space in that column.
3. Check whether you have connected four in a row, or whether your opponent now threatens to.

How to win and how to score a point

You win by dropping chips in a sequence until you connect four of your own in an unbroken line. The line can run across a row, up a column or along either diagonal. The first player to connect four in a row wins the game and scores the point.

If all 42 spaces fill up and nobody has four in a row, the game is a draw.

Strategy for beginners

• Start in the centre column. It sits inside more possible lines of four than any other column.
• Block early. Whenever your opponent has three in a row with an open end, stop it straight away.
• Look for diagonals. Players notice straight lines easily and miss diagonal ones.
• Before every drop, ask what space your chip opens up above it. Do not hand your opponent a winning space.

Thinking in threats

A threat is an empty space where one more chip would complete four. A single threat can always be blocked, so the way to win is to create two at once. This is called a fork, and it usually comes from a chip that adds to a line in one direction and a diagonal at the same time.

The best place for a threat depends on who you are. As a rule of thumb, the player who moves first does best with threats on the odd rows counted from the bottom (the first, third and fifth), and the player who moves second does best on the even rows. This is because of how the columns fill up as the game goes on.

A threat that sits directly above one of your opponent's threats is very strong, because whoever has to play underneath it will lose. Count the empty spaces left in the board and you can often work out who will be forced to play there.

Common mistakes

• Dropping a chip that gives the opponent the space above it.
• Building a single long threat instead of two threats at once.
• Forgetting to check diagonals before blocking.
• Leaving the centre column to the opponent.

Playing Four Connect on boardflix

Choose Easy to learn the patterns and Hard when you want a proper test, or play a friend on the same screen. To play online, create a private room and share the link. Every chip slides down the column with a rattle of clicks and seats with a final click, and the chat in a room is never stored.

Frequently asked questions