How to win tic tac toe every time, going first or second

Updated October 3, 2026 by Kamal Nasir

Against an opponent who makes no mistakes, nobody can win tic tac toe every time: the game is solved, and perfect play from both sides always ends in a draw. What you can do is never lose, and win every time your opponent slips. Below is the standard strategy, going first and going second.

Why nobody can win every time

Tic tac toe is a solved game: with best play from both players it is a forced draw. It is small enough to check completely. There are 765 essentially different positions and 26,830 possible games once rotations and reflections are set aside. Counting finished boards the same way, there are 138, and with X moving first, 91 are wins for X, 44 are wins for O and 3 are draws.

The draw comes from one fact: every single threat can be blocked. You only win when you create two threats at once (a fork), and a careful opponent never lets you.

The move order that never loses

Newell and Simon's 1972 tic tac toe program played perfectly by taking the first move on this list that applies:

• Win: if you have two in a row, play the third.
• Block: if your opponent has two in a row, play the third yourself.
• Fork: make a move that gives you two ways to win.
• Block a fork: if your opponent can fork next move, stop it, ideally with a move that makes two in a row and forces them to answer.
• Center: take the middle square.
• Opposite corner: if your opponent is in a corner, take the corner opposite it.
• Empty corner: take any corner.
• Empty side: take a middle square on an edge.

Jolt: Tic Tac Toe

Tic tac toe that never ends in a draw

Get it on the App StoreAbout the app

How to win going first

Open in a corner. You can win or draw from any first move, but a corner leaves your opponent the fewest safe replies: only the center avoids a forced loss. (One analysis cited on Wikipedia found the center is the stronger opening against imperfect players, so both are worth knowing.) After a corner opening:

• If they answer on an edge, take the center. They must block the corner opposite your first move. Then take the corner that sets up two lines at once, and win next turn.
• If they answer in a corner, take one of the two remaining corners. They must block between your two X's. Take the last corner to make a fork.
• If they answer in the center, take the corner opposite your first move. If they now take a corner, take the remaining corner: it blocks them and forks at the same time. If they take an edge instead, block as needed and expect a draw.

How to never lose going second

• If X opens in a corner, take the center. If X then takes the opposite corner, play an edge, not a corner: a corner lets X fork.
• If X opens in the center, take a corner.
• If X opens on an edge, take the center, a corner next to the X, or the edge opposite it.
• After that, follow the move order above and watch for forks. Most losses as O come from missing one.

When a draw is off the table

Because perfect classic play always ties, variants change the rules so the game can be won. In Jolt: Tic Tac Toe each player keeps only three pieces, so placing a fourth makes your oldest vanish, and no move may put the board back exactly as it already was. Together those rules force a game to finish with three in a row. Strategy changes with them: a threat built on your oldest piece is already expiring, and Jolt fades that piece and marks it with a red dot so you can see what your next move costs.

Questions people ask

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