Gomoku, also called five in a row, is played on the crossings of a fifteen-line grid. Black and white alternate and the first side to line up five of its own stones wins. This page is a pure front-end build: it opens and plays, with no sign-up and no download. Placing a stone takes two taps. The first tap drops a half-transparent preview stone on the crossing nearest your finger, and the same coordinate appears on the preview, in the status line and on the Place key; once all three agree with what you meant, one more tap puts the stone down. Four arrow keys nudge the preview one crossing at a time when you want it exact. This game's rules sit in the status line above the board: the first stone goes on the centre point, six in a row does not win, and a full board with no five is a draw. The opening panel picks the level, your colour, forbidden moves and two-player mode, and all four only affect the next game.

The last pages of a squared exercise book always ended up as a board: a pencil circle here, a cross there, and the ten minutes between lessons was exactly one game. Everyone remembers saying 「block this side」 — and the other side was already an open four. Desks, drawers, the steps in the corridor: gomoku never needed a board or stones, just a sheet of paper. This page puts that sheet in a browser, keeping the paper, the faint blue squares and the graphite grey, and only swapping the pencil for two taps.

Browse all 棋类对弈 games →

【纸】 Pen, paper and the desk drawer · 全程 →

1. 01

   The board is already drawn when the page opens and the preview sits on the centre point, so tap Start game — or just tap the board — to begin.

2. 02

   Tap the board to pick a point. A half-transparent preview stone lands on the nearest crossing and its coordinate shows up in the status line and on the Place key.

3. 03

   Nudge it with the four arrow keys in the control row, one crossing per tap; at the edge it shakes once and says so.

4. 04

   Tap Place to confirm, or tap the previewed crossing a second time. An apricot corner mark then shows the latest stone.

5. 05

   Tapping an occupied crossing — or, with forbidden moves on, a black double three, double four or overline — is refused with the reason spelled out, and the move count does not change.

6. 06

   Nothing freezes while the opponent thinks and the board still answers taps; if it takes a while the status line adds one line and never cuts the search short.

7. 07

   Once you and the built-in AI have each played, Undo takes back two; two-player mode takes back one. Resigning asks once more.

8. 08

   On desktop the arrows move the preview, Enter places, U undoes and Esc or P pauses; on a touchscreen everything is a tap, with no drag and no long press.

A reliable order to check: first look for a point where the opponent completes five next move and block it; then look for your own open four, because the opponent can only stop one end of it; with neither available, play the point that extends two of your lines at once. An open three — open at both ends, one move from an open four — is the real threat; a three with one end blocked dies to a single reply. The win is built on the word 「double」: one move that makes two open threes at once, so blocking one lets the other become an open four. Forbidden moves close that route for black, so playing black with the switch on means going for a four-and-three instead — one move that makes a four and a three together. No need to tense up if you tap off: the first tap only moves the preview, so if the three coordinates are not the point you meant, nudge with the arrows or tap somewhere else to pick a different point.

How do you play gomoku online, and how do you place a stone on a phone?

Placing takes two taps. The first tap drops a half-transparent preview on the crossing nearest your finger; once the preview, the status line and the Place key all show the same coordinate, tap Place — or tap that crossing again — to put the stone down. Pressing down and sliding away before lifting places nothing, so a mis-tap can simply be slid off.

Does six in a row win in gomoku?

Not on this page, and it is not a loss either. Winning needs exactly five of one colour in a row through the point just played, so six does not qualify: the stones stay where they are, the status line says six in a row does not win, and the game continues. With forbidden moves on, black cannot submit an overline in the first place.

What are forbidden moves in gomoku and how do I turn them on?

They constrain black only: black may not make a double open three, a double four or an overline. Switch Forbidden on in the opening panel and it applies from the next game. Here the rule is enforced as 「that point cannot be submitted, and the status line names the shape」, never as a loss — and if the same point also completes five, five wins and the point is legal.

Why must the first gomoku stone go on the centre point?

That is the opening rule this page uses: the first move has exactly one legal crossing, the centre point. It keeps the opening from being thrown away in a corner and lets the three levels be compared from the same starting position. The preview already sits there, so the first move is a single tap on Place.

What is the difference between an open three and a four in gomoku?

An open three is three stones — touching, or with one gap — open at both ends and one move from an open four, so the opponent has to answer it immediately. A four has one end blocked or one gap inside: it is one move from five, but it has only one completion point, so a single block kills it. The open three forces a reply; the four finishes the game.

Does the first player always win at gomoku?

In free-style gomoku, with no forbidden moves, black does have a forced win — that result is settled. Forbidden moves exist precisely to blunt the first-move advantage: they constrain black only, taking black's double three, double four and overline points out of the legal set. This page keeps them off by default, so switch Forbidden on in the opening panel to pull the two sides closer, or set Stones to white or random and play the other colour.

What is a good gomoku strategy for beginners?

Check three things in the same order every move: whether the opponent has a point that completes five, and block it; whether you can make an open four, because then they can only stop one end; and with neither available, play the point that extends two of your lines at once. The level above that is the double — one move that makes two open threes, so blocking one lets the other become an open four. The open three is the real threat, since a three with one end blocked dies to a single reply. With forbidden moves on, the double open three is closed to black, so playing black means going for a four-and-three instead: one move that makes a four and a three together, forcing them to answer the four while your three keeps growing.

How does undo work in gomoku, and how many moves does it take back?

Tap Undo in the control row. Against the AI it takes back two — your stone plus the built-in AI's reply — so it is still your turn afterwards; two players on one screen take back one. The key is natively disabled while the opponent is thinking, before a full round has been played, and when it is not your turn.

What is different between the three gomoku AI levels?

Only four things: search depth, node budget, selection window and quiescence. The shape evaluation and the candidate range are identical, so a lower level is not playing at random — it simply sees less far and sometimes prefers a slightly worse point. All three block a four in front of them; the middle level sees the double-open-three line, and the top one also sees a four-and-three run of forcing moves.

Can two people play gomoku on one device?

Yes. Switch Mode to two players in the opening panel and the two of you take turns on the same controls with no AI involved. Two-player mode keeps no run score and shows the move count in that slot instead, and Undo takes back one move, which lands exactly before the previous player's stone.