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Fours

Drop discs to make four in a row, across, up or diagonally, whatever the computer does.

What is Fours?

Fours is four in a row as a puzzle: a game is half played, it's your move, and you have to win it. Make four of your cream discs in a row, across, up and down or diagonally, within the moves the puzzle gives you, whatever the computer does. It always makes the reply that holds you off longest, so there's no luck in it: one first move wins in time, and every other lets the win slip away. Easy puzzles are a win in 2; expert ones a win in 5 or 6.

Hard Fours puzzles

Hard puzzles are a win in 4, and half of them start with a quiet move: one that makes no threat at all, but leaves them no good reply. There are at least four of their replies to answer on the way, eight as a rule, so check each before the first move. Stacked threats come up in two puzzles in three. The daily puzzle is hard from Friday to Sunday.

Practice gives you positions you haven't won yet, as many as you like, and keeps your best time without hints. A wrong move loses, but you can try the same board again. Every position comes from a game played to that point, and a computer checks that exactly one first move forces four in the moves given.

How to play Fours

  1. A game of four in a row is half played, and it's your move. You have the cream discs, the computer has the ink ones. A disc drops to the lowest empty cell of its column.
  2. Make four of yours in a row, across, up and down or diagonally, within the moves the puzzle gives you: "Win in 3" means with your third move at the latest.
  3. After each of your moves, the computer drops one of its own. It always plays the reply that holds you off longest, so you have to win whatever it does.
  4. Only one first move wins in time. A move after which you can no longer force four in the moves you have left loses the puzzle: the computer shows you its escape, and the game is over. The daily puzzle has one try, and then shows where the win started. In practice, you can try the same board again.

Tap a column, or click it, to drop a disc there. On a computer, your next disc waits over the column you point at, and you can also drag along the board and let go over a column. With the keys, press 1 to 7 to drop into a column, or choose one with the arrow keys and drop with Enter or Space. The computer always makes the same reply to the same move, nearest the middle when it has a choice, so everyone plays the same game, and you're ranked by time. The daily puzzle is easy on Mondays, medium from Tuesday to Thursday and hard from Friday to Sunday.

Solving tips

  • Look at their threes first. If they could make four with their next disc, block it, or nothing else matters.
  • Two threats at once. A move that makes two open threes wins: they can only block one. That's the end of almost every puzzle.
  • Stack your threats. A threat right above another is just as good: when they block the lower one, their disc gives you the cell above it.
  • Don't play under their threats. A disc right under a cell where they'd make four hands them the win.
  • The tempting move is often wrong. A threat that forces a block can be the wrong one if their block leaves you nothing. In the harder puzzles, the first move is often quiet: it makes no threat, but every reply to it loses.