The Best Connect 4 Strategy To Help You Win

Connect 4 is one of the simplest and most fun games to play. The rules of this popular game are straightforward to understand and the games don’t take long to complete. But if you’re new to the game or if you play infrequently, you may find yourself struggling to win.

Armed with knowledge of Connect 4 strategy, however, you may begin to turn the tables on your smug opponents.

As we’ll explore below, there are a range of Connect Four strategies that you can adopt, and here we look at the very best to help you win.

Key Points On Connect 4 Strategy

It pays to play with an attacking mindset.
Try to think ahead and work out what moves your opponent could make next.
Look to build your rows in the centre of the board.
Try to keep open spaces either side of your checkers to prevent blocking moves.

Different Connect 4 Strategies To Help You Win

Here at Foony, we love to play Connect 4, or our own version of the game, 4 In A Row Connect. We’ve discussed strategy at length amongst ourselves and we’ve all got our own winning strategy.

All of the Connect 4 strategies discussed below we’ve tried and tested ourselves. As well as our thoughts on how they work, you can also learn what they are and how you can implement them yourself.

Strategy #1 Planning Ahead

Connect 4 is a game of strategy above all else. As such, it requires a bit of thought on what you can do to win the game.

As we’ll see below, there are approaches you can take to playing Connect Four that are more reactive in their style. However, we’ve found the strategy that gets you the best results and most wins is one in which you plan ahead.

Connect 4 is similar to Chess in that it can massively help to try and anticipate your opponent's next move. If you can do this well, you can play out the whole game in your mind, maintain control and engineer yourself a victory.

For example, you could feint an attack down the flank while building up opportunities to win the game along the central column.

Plans don’t always go as you want them to, however. It helps to be flexible as a result, and as we’ll see further down, you need to be able to react to surprises and traps that your opponent may spring on you.

Strategy #2 Aim To Make The Number Seven

A very useful Connect 4 strategy to keep in mind is aiming to make the number 7 with your checkers.

Some Connect Four players go as far as to say that this is _the _very best of all the Connect 4 strategies, the perfect play.

The Number 7 strategy involves building up a diagonal row of checkers along with a horizontal line a few rows up. This creates what looks like a ‘7’ on the board and gives you two game ending spaces for your next move.

The 7 can face either direction, but once in place it creates a match-winning chance. However, the hard part is manufacturing this on the board. It relies heavily on your opponent's placement of their tiles. Plus, you have to set it up in a way that they do not realise the move you’re trying to make.

Strategy #3 Attack, Attack, Attack

One of the best Connect Four strategies that you can adopt is to play offensively as much as possible.

It’s natural for many players, especially beginners, to respond to what your opponent does. This is fine if you’re following a more defensive strategy where you look to block your foe. But if you want to increase your chances of winning it’s important to attack.

So to achieve this, look to build your own lines and rows of checkers as much as possible to keep the upper hand.

However, if you go completely gung-ho into the attack, a clever opponent could steal victory away from you. Always keep an eye out for ways to prevent your foe from winning. Let’s take a look at how you can do just that.

Strategy #4 Blocking Moves

One of the simplest strategies you can adopt in Connect 4 is the good old blocking move. As the name suggests, it’s a strategy that involves preventing your opponent from building any rows by placing your checkers in the way.

If you simply do not want to lose and you’re happy to draw and stifle your opponent’s efforts, this strategy will work well.

However, it’s very much a defensive approach so you may not find many opportunities to win. Combining a blocking strategy with a counter-attacking stance or one that incorporates traps will work well.

Strategy #5 Controlling The Middle Column

One of the most important Connect 4 strategies to gain an understanding of is the need to control the center column of the board. If you can do this, you can gain control of the entire board.

There are seven columns on a Connect Four board, and the 4th one in from either side is deemed the central. In order to win a game with a horizontal line, you need to have a checker in this column. So it makes it a good starting point if you’re embarking upon an offensive strategy.

To achieve this, it’s recommended that you play a checker in the middle column on your first go. This is the case whether it's your turn to move first or second. It seems a bit silly to both attack the same column, but it can help you negate your opponent's moves ahead too.

If the battle to control the middle column ends in stalemate or if you lose it, you can turn your attention to the two columns either side of it. This will help you block off any potential advances by your opponent and can help you build other winning opportunities.

Strategy #6 Lay Traps And Studying Your Opponent's Moves

If you like to approach games with a bit more cunning and caution as opposed to the gung-ho attacking stance, adopting a Connect 4 strategy centered around laying traps may be for you.

As the game progresses, you may find that opportunities arise to put your opponent in a jam. One particularly effective situation you can do this is when you place a checker that creates two threats for your foe.

For example, your checker may have left an open space on either end of the row, or in the best situations, you could have created a situation where you have a choice of two moves on your next go to claim victory.

Creating double threats like this forces your opponent to make a choice. If you plan ahead like we discussed above, you could lead them into a trap they cannot escape from.

What’s The Best Connect 4 Strategy?

There’s no simple answer to this question, unfortunately. However, the best Connect 4 strategy that you could adopt in a game will largely depend upon your opponent and how they choose to approach it.

For example, if you play somebody who’s keen to set traps, then you may not be able to use your tried and tested attack approach.

Likewise, you may play against somebody who wants to control the middle column, which may be the approach you want to take as well, leading to a stalemate.

Being aware of lots of different Connect Four strategies will invariably make you a better player and will see you win more games. You’ll have the ability to change up your tactics mid game. You can also play smarter too, waiting to see how your opponent approaches the game and adapting accordingly.

So our best advice is to try all of these different strategies out, get used to them, and see how it affects your win rate. We recommend trying it on our free multiplayer game, 4 In A Row Connect.

Here you can quickly test out everything from your offensive strategies to your traps and blocking moves. You can also get more practice on reading your opponent and getting a feel for how lots of different people approach playing the game. This experience will be vital in helping you win more Connect Four games and developing your own winning strategy.

Let us know your favorite Connect 4 strategy in the comments below!