How To Play Connect Four

Connect Four is a game that has been played by families for decades. It's a great game to play on family night, and a good tool for learning how to build strategies. Children as young as 5 years old can understand the rules, and kids as old as 105 can use it to keep their brains sharp.

The simple Connect Four game board is a grid on supports. The grid should be placed upright between the two players. Sort the forty-two game pieces so each player has 21 of only one color. In order to decide who plays first, you may flip a coin, roll dice for the highest number, or draw a card. The first play will alternate between players in subsequent games.

The object of playing Connect Four is to be the first to have four of your color pieces in a row. The row can be vertical, diagonal or horizontal anywhere on the board.

To begin the game, move the slider at the bottom of the grid so the pieces will not fall out. The first player strategically places their piece and then the second player places their piece. The players alternate turns until one player wins by placing four of their color pieces in a row. Depending on the skill level of the players, this could happen within seven turns, or it could take as long as forty-two turns.

If the grid is full and no one has won, check the grid carefully because it is likely the connection was made and went unnoticed.

A proactive player will use strategy to help win the game while the reactive player will use their pieces to block the other player’s move. A player’s strategy will quickly become apparent because two proactive players who are playing against one another will result in a quickly ended game - but when two reactive players compete, the game board often fills up and they will need to search for the win. Age does not always have that much to do with the outcome of a game. Playing this game levels the playing field between the ages.

Connect Four is a wonderful family game. It takes only a few seconds to learn how to play and it returns that investment with hours of fun that everyone can enjoy.