Dots (game)

Dots

Dots is played with two pens of two different colors and piece of squared paper. The goal is to surround more dots than your opponent.
Years active	second half of 20th century to present
Genre(s)	Board game Abstract strategy game
Players	2
Setup time	Minimal
Playing time	5–90 minutes
Random chance	None
Skill(s) required	Strategy, tactics, observation

Dots (Czech: Židi, Polish: Kropki, Russian: Точки) is an abstract strategy game, played by two or more people on a sheet of squared paper. The game is superficially similar to Go, except that pieces are not taken, and the primary target of dots is capturing enemy dots by surrounding them with a continuous line of one's own dots. Once surrounded, dots are not playable.

Dots is played on a grid of some finite size, usually 39x32 (this is the size of the grid that is often encountered on a page of squared copybook in Russia) but arbitrary sizes can be used. Players take turns by placing a dot of their own color (usually red and blue) on empty intersections of the grid.

If a newly placed dot completes a closed chain of dots of the same color which encloses at least one of the enemy dots, then all the area inside it is surrounded. To form a chain dots must be adjacent to each other either vertically, horizontally or diagonally. Surrounded enemy dots are added to the score of the player who surrounded them (but his own dots are not counted). All enclosed dots and empty intersection are excluded from further play and can't be used to make new surrounds. To mark a newly surrounded area, surrounding player must draw a boundary line through all his dots that are part of enclosing chain (to make it more visual he can also paint over the area inside it).

Note, that player can't surround area that doesn't have enemy dots inside. As a consequence enemy can use empty intersections inside it to complete his enclosing chain. However, if enemy places a dot that doesn't finish his own surround, then this dot is immediately captured by a player (this kind of suicide moves are never good but aren't prohibited).

Often there is more than one way of choosing an enclosing chain of dots. When played with pens and paper, players are free to choose one however they like. Nevertheless, when game is played on a computer, to simplify user input, programs usually automatically surround minimum area. In some cases it can be tactically exploited to one's advantage.

The goal of the game is to capture more dots than opponent. At early stages of game formation Dots was usually played on piece of paper with two pens until one of the players surrendered. However this informal way of ending the game is inapplicable in competitive play. Nowadays almost always a grounding rule is used which is described here.