Gomoku looks like a race to five, but games are really decided by threats: shapes that force your opponent to answer. Once you can see which shapes must be answered and which can wait, you will stop losing to surprise attacks and start setting up wins of your own. This tutorial covers the four habits that win most games, plays through a complete first game move by move, and ends with a practice plan you can use on the Gomoku board right away.
What you will learn
- Why the center is the best place to start, and how to keep your stones working together.
- The difference between an open three and a closed three, and why only one of them is urgent.
- Why an open four wins by itself, and why a simple four must be blocked at once.
- How to win with a double threat, especially the 4-3 fork.
If you are new to the rules, read how to play Gomoku first. This tutorial uses the same coordinates: columns A to O from the left, rows 1 to 15 from the bottom, with H8 in the center.
Gomoku Strategy: How to Win at Gomoku
Four habits decide most games between beginners. Learn them in this order: each one builds on the one before.
Start near the center
Open on H8, the center point, or as close to it as you can. A stone in the middle can grow into a line in all four directions and has room on both sides of each line, so it takes part in many more possible fives than a stone near the edge. Corners and edges are weak for the same reason: a line that runs into the edge has only one open end.
After the opening, stay connected. Place stones next to or one point away from your other stones, so they line up in several directions at once. Two stones that touch already share a line; three stones in an L or a small triangle share several. Scattered stones look busy but threaten nothing, and stones in an empty corner neither attack nor defend.
Open threes and open fours
Every Gomoku threat is built from a few shapes. Learn to spot these and the board becomes much easier to read.
Open three. Three stones in a line with room at both ends, such as E10, F10, G10 with D10 and H10 empty. If you ignore it, your opponent extends it to four with both ends open, and then you cannot stop five. A broken three with a gap, like E10, F10, H10, is just as dangerous: filling the gap makes the same open four.
Closed three. Three in a row with one end already blocked. It can only become a four, which you will still have one move to stop, so it is not urgent. Treat it as a resource for later attacks.
Four. Four stones that need only one more for five. There is exactly one winning point, and you must block it immediately, whatever else is happening on the board.
Open four. Four in a row with both ends empty. There are two winning points and you can only block one, so an open four is a win. You never stop an open four; you stop the open three before it gets there.
Block early
Most beginners lose because they only react to fours. By then an open three has often already become an open four, and the game is over. Before every move, go down this list and do the first thing that applies:
- Win. If you can make five, do it.
- Block a four. If your opponent threatens five, block that point.
- Make an open four (or two fours at once). It wins on the next move.
- Stop an open three, unless you can make a four of your own that changes the picture.
- Make a double threat: a 4-3 fork, or two open threes at once.
- Build. Extend your twos and threes toward each other.
Block at the right point. Against an open three, play directly next to it at one end; leaving a gap lets your opponent make an open four anyway. Against a broken three, the gap is often the best block, because it splits the stones. And look for blocks that build: the best defensive move also extends one of your own lines.
Build a double threat: the 4-3 fork
A double threat is one move that creates two threats your opponent cannot both stop. The strongest everyday version is the 4-3 fork (also called a four-three): a four plus an open three made with one stone. Your opponent must block the four, and then the three becomes an open four.
- Double three: two open threes at once. The opponent blocks one, and you turn the other into an open four. It is slightly weaker than a 4-3, because the opponent may be able to answer with fours of their own first.
- Double four: two fours with one stone. Two winning points, only one block, so it wins at once.
To set up a fork, build two lines that cross at an empty point: a closed three in one direction and two stones in another, both pointing at the same spot. On this site all three double threats are allowed for both players. In renju, the tournament variant, Black may not make a double three, a double four or an overline.
Your first game, step by step
Here is a short game between Maya, playing Black, and Leo, playing White. It is the kind of game two beginners might play, and it shows nearly every idea above.
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Maya plays H8, the center.
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Leo plays I9, diagonally next to it. Starting right next to your opponent’s stone is normal; you want to be in the fight from the start.
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Maya plays I8, making two in a row across.
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Leo plays G8, closing the left end of that pair.
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Maya plays H7. Her three stones now point in several directions at once.
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Leo plays H9, blocking the column above H8.
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Maya plays J9. H7, I8 and J9 form a diagonal open three: G6 and K10 are both empty. Leo has to answer.
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Leo plays G6, right next to the three. That is the correct block. The three can still become a four, but never an open four.
After move 8: White has blocked one end of the diagonal three, so it can still become a four (at K10 or L11) but no longer an open four. -
Maya plays K8. Across row 8 she now has H8, I8 and K8, with the gap at J8 and G8 already white. Filling J8 would make a four, so this is a small threat.
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Leo plays J8, plugging the gap. Not forced yet, but tidy.
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Maya plays K9. It looks quiet, but it prepares a trap. A stone at K10 would now complete a four on the diagonal H7, I8, J9, K10 and make an open three in column K with K8 and K9.
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Leo plays G9. He builds his own threat in column G: G6, G8 and G9 form a broken three, so G7 would give him an open four. But he has missed Maya’s trap.
After move 12: K10 makes a four and an open three at once. White's threat at G7 comes too late, because a four must be answered first. -
Maya plays K10: a 4-3 fork. The diagonal four threatens five at L11, and column K now holds an open three.
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Leo must block at L11. A four always comes first. His own three in column G is too slow to matter.
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Maya plays K11, turning the column into an open four: K8, K9, K10, K11, with K7 and K12 both empty.
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Leo blocks K12, but only one end can be closed.
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Maya plays K7 and wins with five in a row, K7 to K11.
Move 17: five in a row from K7 to K11.
Leo answered each threat as it appeared, but on move 12 he only looked at his own plans. Maya won with a single stone that made two threats at once. That pattern decides more Gomoku games than anything else.
More strategy tips
- Use fours as tempo. A four forces an immediate answer. Several fours in a row, each forcing a reply, can carry you into a winning position. Players call this a VCF, victory by continuous fours.
- Don’t waste fours. A four that leads nowhere just gets blocked, and you lose a weapon you might need later. Keep closed threes in reserve until they help a double threat.
- Watch the diagonals. Most surprise losses come from a diagonal line nobody noticed.
- Play White carefully. Black’s first move is a real advantage. As White, defend early and look for counterattacks with fours.
Common beginner mistakes
- Only blocking fours. Treat open threes as emergencies.
- Blocking one point too far away. A gap between your block and an open three lets your opponent make an open four anyway.
- Attacking with no defense. Before you make a three, check whether your opponent has a four or an open three that must be answered first.
- Forgetting the rule you chose. Under Exactly five, a line of six does not win, so filling a gap that makes six is no threat.
A practice plan
- Play Easy as White. It makes plenty of mistakes, so practice spotting its threes and blocking them at the right point.
- Play Medium as Black. It blocks every four and open three, so you will need a 4-3 fork or a double three to win. Try to recreate Maya’s trap from the sample game.
- Play Hard and survive. Take White and see how long you can stop it, and try to push that number of moves up each game.
- Play a friend and swap colors with Rematch after every game, keeping score for the session.
When you are comfortable, try the Exactly five rule in the setup and notice how it changes which shapes are threats. For the full rules and variants, see the Gomoku rules guide. If you want a faster game built on the same ideas, Four in a Row needs only four but adds gravity, and Tic-Tac-Toe shrinks the idea to a 3×3 grid.
