How To Play Ult-Tic-Tac-Toe
U ltimate Tic-Tac-Toe is a super fun game to pass the time with. I forgot who taught it to me but I learned it around my junior year of high school.
The game board for Ult-Tic-Tac-Toe is a large Tic-Tac-Toe board with smaller Tic-Tac-Toe boards in the nine spaces. You can see an initial Ult-Tic-Tac-Toe game board in the image below.
To win the game, you must be the first player to have three spots on the larger boards in a row. To win a spot on the larger space, a player must win the Tic-Tac-Toe game within that space by getting three positions in a row. In the image below, the X player is about to win the whole game: they have won the bottom left Tic-Tac-Toe board as well as the middle Tic-Tac-Toe board. They are one move away from winning the top right Tic-Tac-Toe board and winning the game.
The first player's first move can be in an of the squares on any of the smaller boards. Afterwards however, players can only make moves in sub game boards as determined by their enemy. Let's say for instance that the very first move in the game is the center spot of the top-right sub game board. This would mean that the next player would have to make their move in the middle sub game board. In the image below, the blue Tic-Tac-Toe board indicates where the O player is allowed to make their move based on X's initial move. The middle space in the top right board corresponds to the middle Tic-Tac-Toe game board.
If after that, the second player makes a move in the top-left position of the middle sub game board, the next player would have to make a move in the top-left sub gameboard. The red Tic-Tac-Toe board in the image below indicates where the X player is allowed to play his move based on O's move. The top left move in the center Tic-Tac-Toe board corresponds to the top left game board.
In this way, when players take their turn, they have to consider how their move might help them win the gameboard which they are in as well as how their move will affect their enemy's chance of winning.
Special Rules
Once a sub game is won, it can't be won by another player. If X wins the top-right sub gameboard, X is the sole owner of that spot for the rest of the game. However, just because a sub game board has been won doesn't mean that a player can't send another player to the very same sub game board. Being sent to a sub game board which is already won tends to be disadvantageous, since it means that the player's move will not further their chance to win a sub board which hasn't already been determined. In the image below, X won the top-right game board first. Though, O also eventually won three squares in a row, the game board still belongs to X because X won it first.
If a player is sent to a sub game board which has already had all of its spaces filled, the player must choose one of their previous moves from the same game board to determine where their enemy is sent. In the example below, O is forced to move to the top right Tic-Tac-Toe board even though it already has all of its spaces taken up. The O considers moving again in the top left spot of the top right Tic-Tac-Toe board.
That's the game! Be sure to check out the digital version of it on my projects page.
