Connect 4 rules and how to win

Equipment and goal

Connect 4 is played on an upright board of seven columns and six rows — 42 spaces — with discs in two colors, red and yellow. The goal is to line up four discs of your color horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

How a game goes

Red goes first. Players take turns dropping a disc into any column that isn't full; it slides down to the lowest free space. So you only choose the column, never the height.

The first player to connect four wins immediately. If all 42 spaces fill up with no line, the game is a draw.

The center first

The middle column belongs to more possible lines than any other: a center disc can count across, up and down, and on both diagonals. Start in the center and claim it as often as you can.

Computers have proven it: the first player who opens in the center and then plays perfectly always wins.

Create two threats at once

A threat is three in a row with an empty space at the end. One threat can be blocked. Two playable threats at the same time can't: your opponent blocks one, you win with the other.

Most games are won this way — three in a row with both ends open, or two lines crossing on the same space.

Threats in the air and the odd-even rule

A threat whose space is up in the air (with no disc below it) can't be played or blocked right away. It weighs on the whole endgame: nobody dares play just below it, since that would hand the space to the other side. As the other columns fill up, someone eventually has to give way.

Rule of thumb: the player who went first wants threats on odd rows (1, 3, 5 counting from the bottom), the other player on even rows. A single well-placed threat often wins an endgame.

Mistakes that lose games

Playing right below a space where your opponent wins: you serve them the game. Missing diagonals, which are harder to see than straight lines. Blocking an open two too late: by the time it's three, it's often impossible to stop. And filling a column for no reason, which changes the parity of the endgame.

Practice

The daily puzzles train exactly these reflexes: a position where Red moves and wins in two, three or four moves. Try the puzzles — and to put theory into practice, the computer and its four levels.