The best first move in Tic Tac Toe: corner, centre or edge?

All three openings lead to a draw with perfect play. So the real question is which one gives your opponent the most ways to go wrong. We ran the numbers.

By the TicTacToe team · 31 October 2026 · 3 min read

The first player in Tic Tac Toe has nine squares to choose from, but thanks to symmetry there are really only three different first moves: a corner, an edge (the middle of a side) or the centre. With perfect play from both sides, all three lead to a draw. None of them can be "refuted". Yet they're far from equal in practice.

Measure 1: how many replies lose?

We solved the game for every possible reply to each opening and counted how many of the second player's eight options lose against best play.

The corner is in a different league here. Your opponent has exactly one correct answer. Anyone who doesn't know to take the centre has already lost, provided you know how to follow up.

Measure 2: against an opponent who plays at random

Next we calculated the exact result when both players pick uniformly random squares after the first move. This is a rough model of very young or very casual players.

When nobody plans ahead, the centre wins most. It sits on four lines, so random later marks complete one of them more often. The edge, which sits on only two lines, is clearly the weakest.

Measure 3: against an opponent who blocks but doesn't plan

Most real players are somewhere in between: they take wins and block obvious threats, but they don't see forks coming. The Medium level of the TicTacToe app plays exactly like that: it wins when it can, blocks when it must, and otherwise leans towards the centre and corners with some randomness. We worked out the best possible winning chance for the first player against it from each opening:

This is the most realistic of the three tests, and the result is decisive. Against a player who blocks, the centre is the worst opening and the corner is far ahead. Blocking alone isn't enough to defend a corner opening. You also need to know the one correct reply, and then dodge the follow-up trap.

Why the corner works so well

A corner opening sets up a specific plan. If the reply is anything except the centre, the first player takes a second corner, forces a block with a threat, and then forks with a third corner. Even when the reply is the centre, the first player can take the opposite corner:

Here the natural move, another corner, loses to a fork. Only an edge holds. So a corner opening gives the second player two separate chances to go wrong, and both mistakes look like reasonable moves.

So which should you play?

• Against people who know the basics: open in a corner. It creates the most traps.
• Against small children or random play: the centre wins slightly more often, but the corner is close behind.
• Against a perfect opponent: it doesn't matter. Every opening draws. The TicTacToe Hard level knows this and picks a random centre or corner opening when it moves first.
• Avoid the edge unless you want variety. It's sound, but it gives your opponent the most comfortable game.

Once you've chosen your opening, the next step is learning the follow-up patterns. Read forks and traps to see them all. If you're on the receiving end, how to never lose lists the correct reply to every opening.

Method: figures come from an exhaustive search of the game tree. Random play means each player chooses uniformly among empty squares. The Medium figures assume the first player then plays the moves that maximise their probability of winning against the app's Medium rules.