Connect Four

*Connect Four*
	; A Connect Four game in progress. Red to move; yellow wins.
Publisher	Milton Bradley
Players	2
Age range	7 and up
Playing time	10 minutes
Random chance	None

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Connect Four (also known as Plot Four, Find Four, Four in a Row, and Four in a Line) is a two-player game in which the players take turns in dropping alternating colored discs into a seven-column, six-row vertically-suspended grid. The object of the game is to connect four singly-colored discs in a row—vertically, horizontally, or diagonally—before your opponent can do likewise.

The game was published under the famous Connect Four trademark by Milton Bradley in 1974; however, the much older original version is known as "The Captain's Mistress".

[edit] Perfect play

Connect Four at a bar in Pattaya, Thailand

Connect Four was first put to sale by Harrison Heath, the famous pioneer of disk based puzzles and has been solved by James D. Allen (1 October 1988), and independently by Victor Allis (16 October 1988).^[1] With perfect play, the first player can force a win by starting in the middle column. By starting in the two adjacent columns, the first player allows the second player to reach a draw; by starting with the four outer columns, the first player allows the second player to force a win.