📖 Rules & variants
Board and stones: 15x15 intersections by default (225 points), switchable to a 9x9 quick board in settings. Stones go on the intersections, not inside the squares. Black opens, then the two sides alternate; stones never move and nothing is ever captured. Coordinates follow the international notation - columns A to O, rows numbered 1 to 15 from the bottom - so the centre point is H8. Tapping an occupied intersection does nothing at all: no flash, no message, no move counted. In a round shared between two people that happens a dozen times, and an error chime would just become noise.
Free-style rules, no forbidden moves: five or more of one colour in an unbroken horizontal, vertical or diagonal line wins. Both colours may play double threes, double fours and overlines, and six or seven in a row wins exactly like five. Sites disagree wildly on this point, so it is stated three times here - beside the board, in this section, and in the FAQ - because losing to a rule nobody showed you is the worst way to learn a game. If all 225 intersections fill with no line, the round is drawn, which almost never happens in practice. There is no clock and no timeout loss.
Going first, and the score: opening really is an advantage in five in a row, and the answer here is rotation. Seat one opens rounds 1, 3 and 5; seat two opens rounds 2, 4 and 6; and the Play again button spells out who takes black next. The scoreboard carries the score, the number of drawn rounds, the round number and the move count. A round is recorded at exactly one moment - the stone that decides it - so reloading the page or taking a move back never counts it twice. New match in settings resets the score; Restart round throws away the position without consuming a round number.
Threat notes and review: whenever either side makes an open three, a four, an open four or a double threat, a line appears under the status bar naming the shape and the exact coordinates involved, then folds into a small badge until the next stone. It is symmetric - flagging only one player would be cheating in a shared round - and it only ever describes stones already on the board; it never suggests where to play. The result card adds one sentence explaining which move, at which coordinate, created the shape that decided the round, and a Review button steps through the whole game move by move with the board read-only.
Vocabulary and four habits: an open three is a three that becomes an open four with one more stone (including the split shape with a gap in the middle); a four with one completion point forces an answer; an open four has two completion points; a double threat is one stone opening two lines at once. From that: play near the centre early, because more lines run through it; aim for the intersection where two of your lines cross rather than extending one line at a time; when the other side makes an open three, either take one of its two ends or make a four of your own to seize the initiative back; and remember an open four has two completing points while a stone only covers one, so deal with a three before it becomes one.
❓ FAQ
Can 2 players play gomoku on the same phone?
Yes, and nothing has to be passed around. Five in a row is a fully open position - there is no hidden hand to shield - so this page has no handoff screen and no peek protection. Lay the phone flat between you and take turns tapping intersections. The status bar above the board changes colour with the side to move and carries that player's nickname, so nobody has to ask whose turn it is. Nicknames are in settings and the score stays on screen.
Can you take back a move in gomoku here?
Yes, as often as you like, and never behind an ad. In two-player mode each press of Take back lifts one stone, all the way to an empty board. Against the computer one press rewinds your move and its reply together, leaving it your turn again. After a round is decided the result card also offers Take it back and play on, which reverses the point it just recorded before lifting the stone, so the score can never end up counting a round twice.
Does six in a row count as a win in gomoku, and are there forbidden moves?
Six in a row wins here, and there are no forbidden moves for either colour. This page uses free-style rules: double threes, double fours and overlines are all legal, and whoever first connects five or more wins. Tournament renju restricts black instead, to blunt the first-player advantage. This page handles that a different way - the two sides swap who opens every round - so the rules themselves stay the version that takes one sentence to explain.
Does black always win in gomoku by going first?
The honest answer has three parts. In 1994 Louis Victor Allis proved that on an empty board under unrestricted free-style rules a winning strategy exists for the first player - a qualitative result, with no percentage attached to it. The 67% figure people quote is the measured first-player score at the 1989 and 1991 world championships under the Pro opening rule, and 52% is the figure under Swap2; each number belongs to its own opening rule and they cannot be swapped around. Between club players the edge is far smaller. Here the opener simply alternates every round, so both sides get black equally often.
How many computer levels are there in this gomoku, and can the hardest one be beaten?
Three, and each one is labelled with what it does rather than with an adjective. Rookie extends its own stones and rarely blocks yours. Steady answers your open threes and fours but overlooks one roughly a quarter of the time. Sharp searches two moves deep and looks specifically for points that open two lines at once. All three always answer a four. Sharp can be beaten: because it looks two moves ahead, the way through is one stone that creates two separate threats, since its reply only covers one of them. It is a local search running in this tab, with no opening book and no network.
How do you get five in a row - what should a beginner practise first?
Practise building two lines rather than extending one. A single open three has only two ends, and one defensive stone closes it. Cross two of your lines on the same intersection and playing there creates two threats at once, while the reply only covers one. In practice: open near the centre so each stone sits on as many lines as possible, and from your third or fourth stone onwards deliberately place on the crossing point of two lines you already have. The threat notes on this page call out the shapes with their coordinates as they appear, which is the fastest way to start recognising them.
