Quantum Tic-tac-toe - The Rules

The Rules

Quantum tic-tac-toe captures the three quantum phenomena discussed above by modifying one basic rule of classical tic-tac-toe: the number of marks allowed in each square. Additional rules specify when and how a set of marks "collapses" into classical moves.

On each move, the current player marks two squares with their letter (X or O), instead of one, and each letter (X or O) is subscripted with the number of the move (beginning counting with 1). The pair of marks are called spooky marks. (Because X always moves first, the subscripts on X are always odd and the subscripts on O are always even.)

For example, player 1's first move might be to place "X₁" in both the upper left and lower right squares. The two squares thus marked are called entangled. During the game, there may be as many as eight spooky marks in a single square (if the square is entangled with all eight other squares).

The phenomenon of collapse is captured by specifying that a "cyclic entanglement" causes a "measurement". A cyclic entanglement is a cycle in the entanglement graph; for example, if

• square 1 is entangled via move X₁ with square 4, and
• square 4 is entangled via move X₃ with square 8, and
• square 8 is in turn entangled via move O₄ with square 1,

then these three squares form a cyclic entanglement. At the end of the turn on which the cyclic entanglement was created, the player whose turn it is not — that is, the player who did not create the cycle — chooses one of two ways to "measure" the cycle and thus cause all the entangled squares to "collapse" into classical tic-tac-toe moves. In the preceding example, since player 2 created the cycle, player 1 decides how to "measure" it. Player 1's two options are:

1. X₁ collapses into square 1. This forces O₄ to collapse into square 8 and X₃ to collapse into square 4.
2. X₁ collapses into square 4. This forces X₃ to collapse into square 8 and O₄ to collapse into square 1.

Any other chains of entanglements hanging off the cycle would also collapse at this time; for example, if square 1 were also entangled via O₂ with square 5, then either measurement above would force O₂ to collapse into square 5. (Note that it is impossible for two or more cyclic entanglements to be created in a single turn.)

When a move collapses into a single square, that square is permanently marked (in larger print) with the letter and subscript of the collapsed move — a classical mark. A square containing a classical mark is fixed for the rest of the game; no more spooky marks may be placed in it.

The first player to achieve a tic-tac-toe (three in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) consisting entirely of classical marks is declared the winner. Since it is possible for a single measurement to collapse the entire board and give classical tic-tac-toes to both players simultaneously, the rules declare that the player whose tic-tac-toe has the lower maximum subscript earns one point, and the player whose tic-tac-toe has the higher maximum subscript earns only one-half point.