Abstract combinatorial game, usually played on paper, learned by many during childhood. Start with a grid of dots, and two players take turns drawing lines between two dots adjacent horizontally or vertically. Completing a 1x1 box gains a point and another turn. It turns out to be quite an interesting and difficult game mathematically and computationally.
Sites 3
- Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics: Dots and Boxes Entry with rules, basic strategy, and references.
- Talk by Katherine Scott: Loony Dots and Boxes Endgame Streaming-video 30-minute talk held at MSRI during the Combinatorial Game Theory Research Workshop, July 24-28, 2000. Describes a particular type of endgame which arises frequently in practice and can be solved in polynomial time.
- Dots-and-Boxes Analysis Analysis program and results.