Is Connect 4 solved? Yes. Four in a Row, the classic game many people know as Connect 4, is a solved game. With perfect play, the first player always wins by starting in the middle column.
Who solved it?
Two computer scientists solved it separately, just weeks apart, in October 1988: James Dow Allen and Victor Allis. Allis described his method in his thesis, using a set of rules a computer could check rather than trying every possible game. In 1995 John Tromp built a full database of opening positions that confirmed the result.
What “solved” means
A game is solved when we know the result if both players make perfect moves. For a standard 7 × 6 board:
| First move | Result |
|---|---|
| Middle column | First player wins |
| Either column next to the middle | Draw |
| Any other column | Second player wins |
Does that ruin the game?
No. There are about 4.5 trillion possible positions, far too many for a person to memorise. Even strong players make mistakes, so real games stay exciting. Noughts and crosses is solved too, yet children still love it.
See it for yourself
Try our solver on an empty board. It shows the middle column as the only winning first move. Then test the theory against the Hard computer.
Keep reading
More in Four in a Row Solver: Is Four in a Row Solved? · How the Four in a Row AI Works · Analyse Your Four in a Row Games
Back to Four in a Row Solver · Play the game now