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Gomoku
online with a friend

Five in a row on a big board. Gomoku looks like Tic-Tac-Toe's older sibling, but the extra space turns it into a genuine game of threats, traps and forward planning.

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How to play
  1. Players take turns placing a coloured stone on a 13×13 board. One player is red, the other blue.
  2. The first player to line up five stones in a row — horizontally, vertically or diagonally — wins.
  3. There are no captures and no removing stones. Once placed, a stone stays where it is.
  4. Play a single game or a best-of match, with the starting player alternating between games.

Strategy & tips
  • The game is decided by threats, not by five. An open four — four stones with empty points at both ends — is already a win, because your opponent can only block one end.
  • An open three forces a reply. If you build three stones with both ends open, your opponent must respond or lose. Chain those threats together and they never get a free move.
  • Two threats at once ends it. Look for a stone that creates a three and a four simultaneously. Just like a fork in Tic-Tac-Toe, one can be blocked, two cannot.
  • Read, don't just build. The most common way to lose is being so busy attacking that you miss the opponent's open three. Check their shape every single turn.

Where it comes from

Gomoku comes from Japan — the name means literally "five pieces" — and it's traditionally played on a Go board. It's also one of the games where going first matters enormously: on a free-style board, the first player has such an advantage that competitive rules add opening restrictions to balance it. Our 13×13 board is a deliberate middle ground: big enough for real tactics, small enough to finish during a coffee break.