The best first move in Connect Four is the middle column. It is the only first move that wins with perfect play: a start in column 3 or 5 lets the second player hold a draw, and a start in any of the four outer columns loses. It was also the best start in practice, by a wide margin: in 1,000 games between two of our Medium computers, the first player won 935 after starting in the middle and at most 507 after any other start.
The middle is only the first step, though. Your third disc decides whether the win survives: of the 49 ways the second and third discs can go, 19 keep the first player's win, 10 only draw and 20 lose. This guide shows the winning third moves against every reply, and the natural-looking moves that throw the win away.
The perfect-play results come from the two people who solved the game in 1988. Every other number comes from seeded games between copies of the computer player behind Poozee's Four in a Row, and every board was replayed by its engine. Red moves first in all the diagrams, rows are counted from the bottom and columns from the left. (Connect Four is a Hasbro trademark. Poozee's Four in a Row is our own version of the classic game, and we aren't affiliated with Hasbro.) This guide is for the player who moves first. For the other side, read going second in Connect Four.
Every first move, ranked
James D. Allen and Victor Allis solved Connect Four independently in 1988 (John Tromp's page has the history). In his thesis, Allis showed that the first player wins by starting in the middle column, and only with that first move (chapter 13). Allen's Complete Book of Connect 4, which he has put online for free, calls the middle "Red's only winning first move," and its Table I gives the perfect-play result of every three-disc opening.
To see what each first move is worth between imperfect players, we forced the first disc and let our computer players finish the game. Medium searches four discs ahead, never misses a one-move win or block, and breaks ties at random. Hard was held to eight discs of lookahead so every game replays exactly (in the game itself, Hard searches as deep as it can in 0.7 seconds). The results are the first player's wins, draws and losses in 1,000 games between two Medium computers, and in 200 games each with Hard playing first against Medium and Medium playing first against Hard:
| First disc | Perfect play | Lines through it | Medium vs Medium | Hard vs Medium | Medium vs Hard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 (middle) | First player wins | 7 | 935‑21‑44 | 170‑0‑30 | 114‑73‑13 |
| 3 or 5 | Draw | 5 | 0‑480‑520 | 0‑200‑0 | 8‑23‑169 |
| 2 or 6 | Second player wins | 4 | 411‑84‑505 | 102‑0‑98 | 0‑0‑200 |
| 1 or 7 | Second player wins | 3 | 507‑0‑493 | 0‑0‑200 | 0‑0‑200 |
We played columns 1 to 4; 5 to 7 are their mirror images. "Lines through it" counts how many of the board's 69 possible lines of four pass through the spot the first disc lands on, the bottom of its column. Seeded computers repeat themselves, so the matches are smaller than they look: the 1,000-game ones contain between 18 and 228 different games, and the 200-game ones with Hard between 1 and 102.
The middle won every match. Against the stronger Hard computer, Medium won 114 of 200 games after a middle start and never more than 8 after any other.
Column 3 is a draw with perfect play, and in practice it delivered just that: the first player won only 8 of the 1,400 games that started there, and Hard, playing first, drew all 200 of its games against Medium. The outer columns were worse when the second player was the stronger one: Medium lost all 400 of its games against Hard after starting in column 1 or 2. Even Hard lost all 200 of its games against Medium after starting in column 1.
The middle is also where the lines are. Its bottom spot is part of 7 lines of four and a corner is part of 3, and higher up the gap grows: a disc in column 4, row 3 is part of 13 lines. Our guide to how to win Connect Four has the full table, and the tactics that turn those lines into wins.
After the middle: your third disc decides
Starting in the middle wins only if you keep finding the right moves, and the first test comes at once. Here is Allen's Table I for a middle start, from your side of the board. Each row is the second player's reply, each column is your third disc, and the letter is the result with perfect play from there (W you win, D draw, L you lose):
| Their reply | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | D | L | W | W | W | W | W |
| 2 | L | W | L | D | D | W | L |
| 3 | L | L | D | D | L | W | W |
| 4 | L | L | L | W | L | L | L |
| 5 | W | W | L | D | D | L | L |
| 6 | L | W | D | D | L | W | L |
| 7 | W | W | W | W | W | L | D |
One pattern is worth remembering: unless the reply was on the edge, neither column 3 nor column 5 keeps your win. The disc next to your middle disc is the move most people reach for, and against a reply in columns 2 to 6 it either draws or loses.
Reply on top: stack again
If the second player drops on top of your disc, only column 4 wins, and every other third move loses outright. That's the reply our second-player guide recommends, because it leaves you exactly one winning move. Allen's Table II shows that after four discs in the middle, the fifth must go there too.
Reply next to you: go to the far side
This reply is the trickiest, because the winning moves are the ones that look least natural. The winning third moves are two and three columns away from your disc, on the side away from theirs. The obvious moves don't work: column 5 loses, and dropping on top of either disc only draws. Allis found the same thing (section 13.3): the move that looked best to him, on top of the second player's disc in column 3, turned out to be only a draw, while column 6 won. He concluded that "human intuition is not good enough to really understand the game." After a reply in column 5, flip it: play column 2 or 1.
Reply two away: cover it or mirror it
After a reply in column 2, either drop on top of it or play column 6, the same distance from the middle on your other side. Allis's winning line uses column 6 (section 13.4). Column 3, filling the gap between the two discs, loses. After a reply in column 6, play on top of it or in column 2.
Reply on the edge: almost anything wins
A reply in column 1 is the weakest one. Any third move from column 3 to 7 keeps your win, including the move that wins in Allis's thesis, column 5 (section 13.5). Only column 2, right next to their disc, loses, and dropping on top of it only draws.
What happened when our computers played them
Perfect play is one thing. To see what these third moves are worth between imperfect players, we played every three-disc opening after a middle start (25 of them, counting mirror images once) 200 times between two Medium computers, and 100 times each with Hard playing first against Medium and with Medium playing first against Hard. The table groups the openings by their perfect-play result and gives the first player's score, counting a draw as half a win:
| Third move | Openings | Medium vs Medium | Hard vs Medium | Medium vs Hard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keeps the win | 10 | 75% | 89% | 28% |
| Draws | 5 | 86% | 67% | 45% |
| Loses | 10 | 86% | 64% | 20% |
When the first player was the stronger computer, the winning third moves did best: Hard scored 89% after them against Medium, and about two-thirds after the others. With Hard searching 10 discs ahead instead of 8, the order held: 94% after the winning third moves, 90% after the drawing ones and 79% after the losing ones, and Hard won all 200 of its games from a middle start.
Between two Medium computers the winning third moves scored worst, and single openings went against the theory in both directions. After the on-top reply, the only winning third move, column 4 again, gave Medium 36 wins in 200 games against Medium, while column 3, a loss with perfect play, gave it 128. Perfect-play results tell you what a strong opponent can punish, not what an equally weak one will.
Our computers don't know the theory either. Medium and Hard always start in the middle, but after a reply in column 2, 3, 5 or 6, both pick a third move that only draws, at every depth we tried (8, 10 and 12 discs of lookahead). They find a winning third move only after a reply on top, where they stack again, or on the edge, where five of the seven moves win. Allis's own program needed a long search to tell the moves apart after a reply in column 3 (section 13.3), far deeper than the 8 to 12 discs we tried.
Why we don't trust Hard vs Hard
Hard with a fixed depth has no randomness, so Hard against Hard from a given opening is always the same single game, and that game's result changes with the depth. From a middle start, it was a first-player win at 8 discs of lookahead, a second-player win at 10, a first-player win again at 12 and a draw at 14.
Across the 25 three-disc openings, the result agreed with perfect play in 9, 11 and 9 of them at depths 8, 10 and 12, and stayed the same at all three depths in only 6. So we use Hard against Medium, where Medium's random ties give many different games, and we say how many: the 100-game Hard matches above contain between 1 and 70 different games each, and the 200-game Medium matches between 12 and 143.
A plan for going first
- Start in column 4. It's the only winning first move, and it won every one of our matches.
- Read the reply and pick your third disc from the table. On top: column 4 again. Next to you: two or three columns away on the other side. Two away: on top of it, or the mirror spot. On the edge: anything but the column next to it.
- Don't reach for the disc next to your own. After a reply in columns 2 to 6, column 3 and column 5 never win.
- Then play for odd-row threats. As the first player, your best threats are on rows 1, 3 and 5, and how to win Connect Four shows how they decide the endgame.
Pro tip: Against a casual opponent, the first move matters more than the third. The middle won by a wide margin in every match we played, while the "right" third move only clearly paid off when the first player was the stronger one.
On Poozee, you always play red, and the first player switches with every new game, against the computer and in 2 Players mode. When you go first, Hint shows the column the Hard computer would pick, which on an empty board is always the middle. When the computer goes first on Medium or Hard, it starts in the middle too, so that's the game to practice answering. For the rules, ties and who goes first, see how to play Connect Four.
Keep playing
- Play Four in a Row and try the third-move table against Medium or Hard
- How to win Connect Four: double threats and odd and even rows
- Going second in Connect Four: the best reply to the middle and the follow-up finish
- Checkers openings for beginners, another opening guide tested with seeded computer games
Frequently asked questions
Is the middle the best first move in Connect Four?
Yes. The middle column is the only first move that wins with perfect play, and it was also the best start in practice: in 1,000 games between two of our Medium computers, the first player won 935 after starting in the middle and at most 507 after any other start.
What happens if you don't start in the middle in Connect Four?
With perfect play, a start in column 3 or 5 is a draw and a start in any of the four outer columns is a win for the second player. In our tests, the first player won just 8 of 1,400 games after starting in column 3.
Where should you play after your opponent answers the middle?
It depends on the reply. If they drop on top of you, play column 4 again. If they reply in column 3, play column 6 or 7. If they reply in column 2, play on top of their disc or in column 6. If they reply in column 1, anything from column 3 to 7 keeps the win. Flip the columns for replies on the right.
Can you always win Connect Four if you go first?
Only if you never make a mistake. The first player can force a win by starting in the middle, but the win often hangs on a single correct move, and our Hard computer missed it at every search depth we tried: after four of the seven possible replies to the middle, it played a third move that only draws.