Maker and Breaker
Two boards. You are the maker on your own and the breaker on theirs, and so are they. Every round you both place one piece at the same time, in secret. Five in a row on your board wins it, and doing that in fewer rounds than they do wins the match.
The two boards
- There are two boards of thirty-six squares, six by six. One is yours to make on and the other is theirs.
- You place on both of them: on your own you are trying to build a line, and on theirs you are trying to stop one.
- Which board you place on changes every round, and the page says which in words above the boards. Round one is your own, round two is theirs, and so on.
- A piece is an X or an O, your choice, on any empty square. Pieces never move once they are down.
The round
- Each round you both place one piece, at the same time. You cannot see what they have chosen until you have chosen too.
- When both pieces are in they are revealed together, and the round is over.
- Because you both move at once, a round is one deadline however long the game goes on. Nobody waits for a turn.
The rule everybody gets wrong
- It does not matter who placed the pieces. Five or more like symbols in a row makes that board for its maker even if the breaker put the fifth one there.
- So as the breaker you have to watch what you are building as well as what you are blocking. Filling an awkward square with the wrong symbol hands the board over.
- That is also why six in a row also wins: a longer line still contains a line of five, and it still belongs to the maker.
How a game ends
- A board is done when it is made (five in a row) or when it is full with no line in it, which means the breaker held it.
- The game ends when both boards are done. Making five does not end it: the other board is still being played, and their round count is the rest of the result.
- The maker who took fewer rounds wins the match. Equal rounds is a draw, and so are two boards that nobody made.
- A player who resigns or misses the move deadline loses the match there and then.
Worth knowing before you start
- A line of four with one empty square is decided unless it is answered at once, so the thing to aim for is two of them pointing at different squares. One piece cannot block both.
- As the breaker you will often lose the board in the end. The point is to make them spend rounds on it, because rounds are what the match is decided by.
- Nothing in this game is decided by chance. There is no first move to win and no colour to be given: you both start as the maker on your own board.
- The bot plays at one of three strengths, drawn per game from the seed. The weakest looks one move ahead, and the strongest looks three.
The seed decides nothing in this game except how strong the bot is. It is published when the game ends, so the whole match can be replayed from the log and checked.
Maker and Breaker terms
- Maker
- What you are on your own board: the player trying to get five in a row of one symbol.
- Breaker
- What you are on theirs: the player trying to fill the board without a line of five appearing in it.
- A round
- One placement from each player, made at the same time and revealed together. The match is decided by how many of them each maker needed.