You can do the same to give your matches life "outside the box." Turn your normal tic-tac-toe into a kind of game! When you start your match, say something like "Honey, if you avoid opening in the center square this evening, I will reward you with sex." (Or, if you prefer, "If you open in the center square again, I won't have sex with you.") A strategy like this helped me to beat Lance Carlotti in 1996 and win the National Tic-Tac-Toe Federation's Golden Stickpin, but instead of sex I used threats of leprosy. When your wife has finished drawing the grid, but before she has actually written an X, do what the fast-food industry calls "suggesting a sell," by saying something like "Say! I wonder what would happen if you started in the upper left-hand corner?" or "I bet a middle-right opening would lead to a game full of nail-biting excitement." Keep at it! She may not succumb right away, but after fifty or a hundred times your influence may sink in.Ģ.) Negotiation. I can think of two ways to do this.ġ.) Suggestion. If you think about it, avoiding the center-square opening gives you eight more squares to choose from! That's far more than a limited, goal-oriented player will ever see!īut because your wife's practice isn't illegal, all you can do is persuade her to try something else.
Opening with the center square every single time is the mark of an immature player, and a practice that the National Tic-Tac-Toe Federation officially frowns on. This makes it very hard for me to employ a winning strategy. The problem is, whenever she goes first, she places an X in the center square. D ear Dave: My wife and I are big fans of tic-tac-toe, and we try to play it whenever we're not too tired after work.
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