Friday, December 10, 2010

It's Beautiful: XKCD's Optimal Tic-Tac-Toe Comic

This is going to be too big, just hit the jump



And now click on the picture to bask in its pure glory. Randall Munroe has outdone himself on this. Some things I've noticed from the picture:


  • O is many, many times more complex than X. In fact you can win more easily by going first than 2nd because of this.
  • Your first move should always be top-left. This beats my usual play of center.
  • Speaking of Center and my own OCD: The field for X is nearly symetrical along the y=x line save for it's opening move (for non-math nerds, that's the diagonal line from bottom left to top right). O have both diagonal lines for symmetry but for the same reason.

No comments: