Connect Four Hard

Controls Goal: connect four of your discs (red) in a row — horizontally, vertically or diagonally — before the computer (yellow) does. You go first. Controls: with a mouse, click the ▼ above a column or any cell in it and the disc drops to the lowest empty cell (hover shows a dotted ring where it will land). On touch, tap a column. On a keyboard, ←→ picks a column and Enter/Space/↓ drops; the number keys 1–7 drop straight into that column. Scoring: only won games are ranked, and the fewer discs you placed the higher you rank (4 at the very least). A loss or a draw is not recorded. There is no pause or undo. Tips: the centre column takes part in the most possible lines. A horizontal three with both ends playable cannot be stopped, so block it before it forms; likewise, a move that threatens four in two places at once leaves the computer able to block only one. The computer looks only a few moves ahead (further on higher levels).