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by Miniant Labs
★ 5.00 average from 1 plays
This is not the tic-tac-toe that ends in a draw every time. It is the vanish variant, and one rule changes everything: you may hold at most three marks on the board at once. Place a fourth and your oldest mark disappears in the same instant.
The consequence is that the game cannot be drawn. At most six of the nine squares are ever occupied, so there is always a legal move and play simply continues until somebody lines up three of their current marks. A position that looks dead is never dead — it is two placements away from being completely different.
Rounds are short, usually under a minute, and the skill is not in the opening but in tracking which of your marks is about to vanish and which of your opponent's is about to hand them a line.
The mark about to vanish is the one deciding your next move. A line built on a mark that is one placement from disappearing is not a line — it is a trap you set for yourself.
If they already have three down, their next move costs them their oldest. Placing so that their vanishing mark was the one blocking you is the cleanest way to win a round.
In standard tic-tac-toe the centre is held forever. Here it expires. Taking it early is fine; relying on it four moves later is not.
The first two placements rarely matter much. The third is the one that starts the vanish clock, and it is worth the extra two seconds of thought.
Because only six of the nine squares can be occupied at once, there is always at least one empty square to play into. Play continues until someone completes a line, so every match has a winner.
No. It is always your oldest mark, and it goes at the same moment your new one lands. That fixed order is what makes the position readable for both players.
After 30 seconds of silence their seat is auto-played by the same computer opponent the practice mode uses, so the match finishes instead of stalling. If they come back, they get their seat again on their very next move.
Only the board is. The three-mark limit turns a solved game into one that has to be played, which is the point of the variant.
