A devilish twist on noughts and crosses: both players mark X, and completing a line loses you the game.
Take turns placing an X on any open cell. Unlike normal tic-tac-toe, there are no Os and no winner by line. Whoever is forced to complete a three-in-a-row loses that board, and on a single board that means the game.
Notakto is tic-tac-toe made impartial — the term for a game in which the moves available depend only on the position, never on whose turn it is.
It achieves that by removing the distinction between the players: both place the same mark, an X, across one or several boards at once. The game ends when every board holds three in a row, and the player who made the last move is the one who loses.
The result is a hybrid of its two parents. The boards are tic-tac-toe; the structure — several independent components, each contributing to one combined position — is nim, and the game is analysed with the same mathematics. Unlike ordinary tic-tac-toe, it can never be drawn.
Notakto is an original free browser take on misère noughts-and-crosses, a combinatorial strategy puzzle where the goal is to make your opponent complete the line. Play instantly, no sign-up.