📝 Dots and Boxes: scoring rules
By Miguel Arechaga
Dots and Boxes is played on a grid of dots. Here are the complete rules and, above all, how scoring works, which is where most questions come up.
Setup
Draw (or generate on screen) a grid of dots, for example 6×6 dots, forming 5×5 = 25 possible boxes. Two players take turns.
How to play
- On your turn you draw one line, horizontal or vertical, between two adjacent dots.
- If your line completes the fourth side of a box, that box is yours: mark it with your initial or colour.
- Closing a box gives you an extra turn: you draw another line. If that one also closes a box, you keep going.
- If your line closes nothing, the turn passes to your opponent.
How scoring works
Each closed box is worth 1 point. Since the total number of boxes is fixed, on a 5×5 board (25 boxes) the winner is whoever reaches 13 boxes: at that point it is mathematically impossible to be caught.
Important detail: a single line can close two boxes at once (one on each side). You score both points, and you get one extra turn, not two.
End of the game and ties
The game ends when every line has been drawn and no boxes remain. Most boxes wins. On boards with an even number of boxes (e.g. 4×4 = 16) a tie is possible; that is why classic boards are usually odd (5×5 = 25), so there is always a winner.
Scoring variants
- Best of several rounds: play 3 or 5 games and add up all boxes.
- Valued boxes: some special squares are worth 2 or 3 points; it completely changes the strategy.
- Reverse Dots and Boxes: whoever closes more boxes loses. Sounds odd, plays great.
Know the rules and want to master the game? Read our Dots and Boxes strategy guide.
