Your turn — you are X
Tic-tac-toe with hidden depth. Nine small boards sit in a 3×3 grid, and every square you mark sends your opponent to the matching board for their next move. Win a small board to claim its square on the big grid; line up three claimed boards and you win the whole game. Suddenly a child's game becomes a battle of traps and tempo — you're not just playing one board, you're steering where the fight goes next. Play X against an AI that gets sharper over your first three straight wins, then stays at full strength.
The board is nine small tic-tac-toe boards laid out in a big 3×3 grid. You are X and move first; the AI is O. On your turn, tap any empty cell inside the board you are allowed to play in — the allowed board (or boards) glows green.
Here is the heart of it: the position of the cell you mark, within its small board, tells your opponent which big-grid board they must play in next. Mark the top-right cell of a board, and your opponent must answer in the top-right board. So every move is two decisions at once — where to play, and where to send them.
Win a small board by getting three of your marks in a row inside it, just like normal tic-tac-toe. That board is then yours and shows your mark on the big grid. A small board that fills with no winner is a dead square that counts for neither side.
If your move would send the opponent to a board that is already won or full, they get a free choice and may play in any open board instead. The same applies to you.
You win the whole game by claiming three small boards in a row — across, down, or diagonally — on the big grid. Win to extend your streak; the AI searches deeper after your first win and again after your third, and from then on plays at full strength. It picks at random between equally good moves, so simply repeating a winning line won't work.
Think about where you send them, not just where you play. A move that completes nothing for you but forces the AI into a board where it has no good reply is often stronger than a flashy local capture. Every mark is also an order: choose the cell whose position points the opponent somewhere harmless.
The centre board is gold. It sits on four of the eight big-grid winning lines, more than any other board, so controlling it is worth a real fight. Be wary, though, of moves that hand the opponent a free swing at it.
Beware the move that sends them where they want to go. Before you mark a cell, picture the board its position points to. If that board lets the AI win a square or build a big-grid threat, look for a different cell — even in the same small board — that sends them somewhere quieter.
Use the free move, and deny it. Sending the opponent to a finished board gives them a free choice anywhere, which is usually bad for you — so avoid it unless the free board you'd open is harmless. Equally, when you get a free move, spend it on the centre or on a board that sends the AI into trouble.