1. The game is played on a 3x3 grid of squares, each square having its own grid of 3x3 squares, making a total of 81 squares

2. You are X, your opponent is O. You place your mark in one of the smaller squares. This will place your mark exactly where you tell it to, and then your opponent must place your mark in the large square that equates to the small square you just placed in.

Ex: Player 1 placed their mark in the middle left of the center grid. Because of this, the middle left of the small grid has their mark, and Player 2 must place their mark in any of the small squares within the middle left of the larger grid.

3. The first player to get 3 small marks in a row (up, down, across, or diagonally) wins that square of the larger grid. The first to get 3 in a row of the larger grid wins the game.

4. When all 9 squares are full, the game is over. For the small grids, if there is no line of 3, that square is a tie. If at the end of the game, all large squares are full and there is no large line of 3, the whole game is a tie