One player chooses crosses and the other noughts, and the one who is to begin puts his mark—say, a cross—in one of the nine squares. The other puts a nought in another of the squares, and so it goes on until either three noughts or three crosses are in a straight line in any direction. Thus, this is the end of a game in which noughts played first and crosses won:
But it often happens that the game is drawn, as in this example, in which noughts played first:—
A blank book for "Noughts and Crosses," with the framework all ready, can now be obtained. It has places for the names of the players, and the date.
Paper French and English
"French and English," another game for two, belongs to the family of "Noughts and Crosses," and can be played anywhere and on any scrap of paper. You first decide which will be English and which French. Each player then takes one-half of the paper and covers it with, say, sixty dots. It does not matter how many, but there must be the same number on each side. Then in a corner each draws a cannon, or draws something that can be called a cannon for the purposes of the game. You then decide how many turns you will have. The game is played by placing the pencil on the cannon, shutting your eyes, and dashing the pencil across your enemy's side of the paper, straight or crooked, in any direction you like. Then you open your eyes, count how many dots the pencil line has passed through, and score them down. The player who, at the end of the number of turns settled upon, has gone through the greatest number of dots is the winner.