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How to play Connect Four: rules and how to win

Connect Four is played by 2 players on a board with 7 × 6 squares. White moves first. Drop a disc into one of seven columns and connect four.

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Play Connect Four

Quick answer

Connect Four is a two-player connection game on an upright grid of seven columns and six rows. Players take turns dropping a disc into a column that is not full, and the disc falls to the lowest empty cell. The first player to line up four discs horizontally, vertically or diagonally wins; a full board with no line is a draw. This guide covers Connect Four. Check the movement, capture and game-ending rules below before applying rules from another variant.

Players
2
Board
7 × 6 squares
First move
White moves first.

Ruleset and sources: Connect Four

Setup

Game illustration
Game illustration. Follow the setup instructions to prepare a new game.

Start with an empty board of seven columns and six rows. White (yellow discs) drops first; Black plays the blue discs.

Board
7 × 6 squares
Players
2
First move
White moves first.
Rules used here
Connect Four

Moves and captures

  • Legal moves

    Choose a column that is not full. Your disc falls to the lowest empty cell. Players alternate one drop each.

  • Using the board

    Select a column that is not full. Your disc falls to the lowest empty slot in that column.

Special rules

  • Discs cannot float, move sideways or be removed.

  • A full column is disabled.

Winning and draws

  • Four or more of your discs in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line wins immediately.

  • A full board without a winning line is a draw.

Example

Sources and rule verification

Ruleset covered
Connect Four
  1. Hasbro — The Classic Game of Connect 4 (instructions)
  2. Fairy-Stockfish variants (implementation reference)
  3. Fairy-Stockfish — variant definitions (43b66c8, implementation reference)

This guide describes play on ChessPlayX. Platform-specific conventions are stated in the relevant sections; tournament administration may differ.

A separate rule-review date is not recorded for this guide. The update date is not a verification date.