Four in a Row — Strategy

The match: playing second

A match has two games, and in one of them you move second. On a 7×6 board the first player wins with perfect play, so the honest aim of the game with the second move is a draw, and a win is a reward for the opponent’s mistake.

The match score adds up both games. Winning the game with the first move and drawing the game with the second gives 1½:½ — a match win. So you do not need to win the second-move game at any cost: a risky attack that loses turns 1½:½ into 1:1.

What to do as the second player:

• Take the centre if it is free, or answer next to the opponent if they took d1.
• Watch the opponent’s odd threats (see the topic on odd and even rows) and break them before they ripen.
• Build your own threats on even rows: they ripen by themselves at the end of the game.
• Do not hurry: every cell you leave the opponent under their threat is a lost game.

If you lost the first game of the match, in the second you must win with the first move, or the match is lost. If you won the first, a draw in the second is enough. The match scoreboard above the board shows the score and who starts the next game.

Conceding a hopeless game of the match is fine: the "Concede the game" button closes only that game, and the next one is still played.