Nine holes

Nine holes is a two-player abstract strategy game from different parts of the world and is centuries old. It was very popular in England. It is related to tic-tac-toe, but even more related to three men's morris, achi, tant fant, shisima, picaria, and dara, because pieces are moved on the board to create the 3 in a row. It is an alignment game.

The game is played with a game board with 9 spaces or holes, arranged in a 3 by 3 grid with horizontal and vertical lines. Each player has 3 pieces. The board starts out empty. The game is then played through two stages:

Each player drops one piece per turn on any vacant space on the board. Players alternate their turns. Pieces cannot move until all three pieces have been dropped.

After each player's three pieces have been dropped on the board, each player can move a piece to an adjacent vacant space on the board. Only one piece can be moved per turn. A variation of the game rules exists where pieces can be moved to any vacant space.^[1]

The winner is the first player to create a 3 in a row, either horizontally or vertically (not diagonally), using their pieces. Players can create the 3 in a row at either the drop phase or move phase, and win the game.

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