Boxes

Boxes is sometimes known as Dots or Dots and Boxes. It's a fun competitive game with simple rules but some strategy and thinking ahead needed. Often it is hard to tell who has won until all the boxes have been counted, adding to the excitement.

How to play

Draw a grid of dots. The younger the child, the less dots you want - to speed the game up. Alternately you can print one of our grids below.

You will need a pencil or pen each. Choose which player is to go first. He or she joins two adjacent dots with a straight line, horizontally or vertically. The next player then also joins up two adjacent dots.

Play continues with the players taking turns until someone completes a box. They then claim the box as their own by writing their initial in it, and taking one more go. Every time a box is completed, the player who completes it gets another turn ... so sometimes a player will manage to complete quite a number of boxes in a row before their turn is over!

Continue play until all boxes are complete. The player with the most boxes wins.

Our Boxes Printables