The Substitute Teacher
Games of Strategy
Dots and Boxes
[Dots and Boxes - Game]
This game is played between two players on any rectangular array of dots. A 5x5 grid is a shorter game than a 10x10 grid. A game is measured by the number of boxes in the grid, each marked off by a dot on every vertex.
The players take turns in making legal moves, where a legal move consists of joining two horizontally or vertically adjacent dots which were previously unjoined. Each player must make a move. No player may "pass" when it is her or his turn.
When a player completes the fourth side of a box, a point is scored, and that player may place his or her initial in that box. See sample game above.
The player who has more completed boxes wins. Ties are
possible in games where the array forms an even number of
boxes. In the game above, Red won with 9 boxes and Black
lost with only 7. An interesting variation of this game is
possible when players are required to complete the fourth
side of a box.
Credits: Evolution of Neural Networks to Play the
Game of Dots-and-Boxes,Lex Weaver, Terry Bossomaier
http://xxx.lanl.gov/PS_cache/cs/pdf/9809/9809111.pdf