About Play XO

Play XO is a small site for playing board games with a friend, over one link, in the browser.

What it is

Nine classic games for two people: tic tac toe, ultimate tic tac toe, connect four, reversi, gomoku, dots and boxes, checkers, battleship and backgammon. Every game is the plain version people already know, with no accounts, apps or timers standing in the way of the first move.

How it works

Open the site and you are already playing against the bot. When you want a real opponent, press the Play with a friend button and you get an address like playxo.com/r/kite-42. Send it in any chat. The moment your friend opens it, the board is shared: moves appear on both screens at once, and the room keeps your seat if you reload or lose signal. Nobody has to install anything, and your friend does not have to sign up either.

The bot is there so the board is never empty. It plays at five levels and moves up when you beat it twice in a row, down when it wins three times. Games against the bot never touch the rating: only games against people do.

Accounts, badges and rating

An account is optional. It exists so your badges, statistics, Elo rating and your place in the monthly top survive between devices, and so people can find your profile at playxo.com/u/your-nick. You can delete it, with everything in it, from your account page at any time.

Why it is free

The site is free to play, and it stays that way: no paywall, no premium board, no coins. Running it costs little, and the bills are covered by ads. There is no plan to sell your data instead, and there is nothing on the site that you have to pay to unlock.

Who makes it

Play XO is built and run by one developer, Denis, as an independent project. Bugs, ideas and complaints all reach a human: write to hello@playxo.com or use the contact page. New games get added when they play well on a phone screen and are worth a second round.

Play XO started in August 2026. Last updated 6 September 2026.