Alphabe Thursday X is for noughts and crosses

Noughts and crosses or Tic-tac-toe, is a ‘paper and pencil game’ for two players. Each player takes a turn marking a cross or a nought in a 3×3 grid. The winner is the one who places three respective marks in horizontal, vertical or diagonal row. It is an ancient game;  the Romans  played a similar game called Terni Lapili in the Ist century BC, the ancient Egyptians too played a variant. There is another ancient game called Three Men’s Morris that is played on a simple grid and requires a a row of three pieces to finish.

All this said I have never worked out how to win at noughts and crosses ; it has always seemed a pointless game.

I played it with my dad who never let me win; thinking perhaps it taught me to be  good sport.  When I played with my little sisters I was forbidden to allow them to lose; that would have been unkind! So a double whammy!

I don’t think many children now would find noughts and crosses much fun.