So, you’ve been frittering away the hours trying to beat Google at Tic Tac Toe… on Impossible mode. And now you’re here, looking for, searching for, hoping for a hack or a tactic or a tip that will finally help you clinch victory against your machine overlord.
Well… we’re sorry to say, but you’re out of luck. There simply is no way to beat Google at Tic Tac Toe on Impossible mode. Tic Tac Toe is a very simple game, with only a relatively small number of possible moves and play styles players can have or make. Unlike coding computers to play chess against grandmasters of the game, Google didn’t have to do much to ensure that its online Tic Tac Toe AI has all of the tools necessary to beat or draw with any human player it confronts.
After all, if computers can beat chess grandmasters at the sport they’ve dedicated their entire lives to mastering, then how on earth could you beat a computer coded to beat you at Tic Tac Toe?
The best you can hope to do against Google’s Tic Tac Toe ‘Impossible’ mode is to draw against it. And if you’ve heard otherwise, don’t be fooled! Google can confirm that not one single person has or ever will beat their Impossible mode. It’s in the name! Impossible!
If you have more questions, or want more information, see our FAQs below.
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FAQs
What is Tic Tac Toe?
Tic Tac Toe, known commonly as Noughts & Crosses and X’s & O’s is a children’s basic strategy game, in which two players compete to make a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line of either three X’s or three O’s on a 3×3 grid. Players take it in turns to mark either X or O on the grid (depending on which one they’ve elected as their symbol), aiming to cut each other off in their bid to draw a line, whilst at the same time trying to draw one of your own.
In this particular My How To Online article, however, the question refers to the Google online version of the Tic Tac Toe game, in which you can play against other players, or against the computer in three different difficulties: Easy, Medium, or Impossible.
What is Google’s Impossible mode?
The ‘Impossible’ mode on Google’s online Tic Tac Toe game is the hardest difficulty in the game, and has been described by Google as literally impossible to defeat. Nevertheless, this hasn’t stopped people from trying, and many still believe that – despite the name of the mode – there must be a way to beat the computer. We’re here to tell you, there isn’t.
What is the best outcome playing Impossible mode on Google’s Tic Tac Toe?
Tic Tac Toe, typically played on paper with a pen or pencil, is a very straightforward game. It’s probably one of the first games you’ll remember playing as a kid, either with your parents or a friend. As such, there aren’t a huge variety of ways to play; unlike chess, which can comprise millions of different moves, game types, and play styles, and thus require complex brains or computers to master.
In fact, it’s fairly common for people to have memorized strategies for Tic Tac Toe which ensure that they never lose. That isn’t to say, however, that they always win. Unless they’re playing against someone who doesn’t really know what they’re doing, there’s still a good chance they’ll simply draw the game (or equalize it). If they play against someone else who also knows the strategy for never losing, then the two players will draw each game every time.
The same goes for playing against Google’s Tic Tac Toe Impossible mode. The best outcome you can possibly hope for is to draw. There simply isn’t any way to beat Google, since Tic Tac Toe is so simple a game that Google have encoded their computer to be able to play against absolutely any move, in order to end the game in victory or draw for Google.
Has anyone beaten the Google Tic Tac Toe game on Impossible yet?
No. No-one has yet beaten Google’s Tic Tac Toe game on Impossible mode, and the fact is no-one ever will! Unlike some earlier computer versions of the children’s game, which intentionally had flaws and failures written into their code, Google’s version of Tic Tac Toe has been deliberately made to be impossible.
Now, maybe you’re here having watched YouTube videos of players supposedly winning against Google on Tic Tac Toe Impossible mode, and you want to know why you can’t replicate this for yourself. The answer is: those videos were doctored to just make it look like the player won against the computer.
Go back and watch, read the comments and have a think. You’ll see what we mean!
