Four in a Row: How to Play, and the First Threat to Learn

Four in a row is one of those games you can learn in a minute and keep getting better at for years. If you came here to find out how to play four in a row, the short version is this: drop discs, connect four, block your opponent. The longer version below covers the rules, the first trap worth learning, and how to give the computer a real game.

You can follow along in Drop Four, our free four in a row game. It runs in the browser on a phone or a computer, with nothing to install.

How to play four in a row: the rules

The board stands upright. It has 7 columns and 6 rows, so 42 slots in total.

• Two players take turns. On your turn you pick a column and drop one disc into it.
• The disc falls to the lowest empty slot in that column. You never choose the row, only the column.
• Get four of your discs in a line to win. Across, up and down, and diagonal all count.
• If all 42 slots fill up and nobody has four, the round is a draw.
• A full column is closed. In Drop Four, tapping one just tells you to pick another.

That is the whole rulebook. Everything else is strategy.

Picking a mode in Drop Four

The menu gives you three choices:

• Me vs computer. You always move first in this mode.
• Two players on one device. Pass the phone back and forth, or share a laptop. You can type both names, and the turn messages will use them.
• Watch computer vs computer. Handy if you want to see how openings play out without thinking too hard.

On a computer you can click a column or press the number keys 1 to 7. On a phone you just tap the column. When a round ends, Play again keeps the same mode and Change mode sends you back to the menu.

Start in the middle

The middle column is the best square on the board, and it is not close. A disc in column 4 can be part of a line going left, right or along both diagonals. A disc on the edge can only reach one way.

So the first move is easy: middle column. If your opponent took it already, stay near it. Columns 3 and 5 are fine. Columns 1 and 7 are where you go when you have a reason.

This is not just a rule of thumb. The game was solved by computer in 1988, and the result is that the first player can force a win, but only by starting in the middle.

The first threat to learn: the bottom row trap

Here is the one trick every new player falls for, and it happens in the first four moves.

Say you open in column 4. Your opponent plays somewhere far away, like column 1. You drop your next disc in column 3. Now you have two side by side on the bottom row, with open space on both ends.

If they do not block right now, you play column 5. That gives you three in a row with columns 2 and 6 both empty and both playable, because they sit on the floor of the board. They can block one end. You win on the other.

Two lessons come out of this:

1. When you are on offense, two in a row on the bottom with room on both sides is already a threat.
2. When you are on defense, block that shape early. Waiting until it is three in a row is too late.

The same idea works higher up the board. The difference is that a slot only counts when the disc below it is already there. A threat floating over an empty slot is not live yet.

How to beat the computer

The computer in Drop Four reads the board a few moves deep. It will block any open three, and it will see a simple double threat coming. When two moves look equally good to it, it picks one at random, so the games do not repeat.

What it does not do is plan far ahead. That is the opening for you.

• Set up threats that pay off late. A spot where you need one more disc, high on the board, can sit there for ten turns. Eventually the columns fill up and someone is forced to play under it.
• Count rows from the bottom. As the first player, threats on rows 1, 3 and 5 tend to work in your favor near the end of the game. That is a deeper idea, but it is the kind of thing a short-sighted opponent misses.
• Do not hand it a free square. Before every move, look at the slot directly above where your disc will land. If your opponent wins there, do not play that column.

Quick checklist before every move

1. Can I win right now?
2. Can they win next turn? Block it.
3. Will my disc give them a winning slot right above it?
4. If none of the above, play toward the middle or build a second threat.

That list catches most mistakes, for you and against a friend.

More turn-based puzzles

If you like the part where you have to think one move ahead, try Fair Mines, a minesweeper where every board can be solved without guessing. Island Links is a calmer logic puzzle about joining islands with bridges. Both are in the same puzzle category as Drop Four.