How to play Ten Rows

A row, and two numbers back

Play four pegs and you are told how many are the right peg in the right place, and how many are the right peg somewhere else. Nothing else.

Ten rows to break the code. The rules are the 1971 originals and have not needed changing.

The code is not in your browser

Not encoded, not shuffled, not held back by the interface — it is not in the frame at all until your own board is finished. Every row comes back marked by the server and nothing else does.

Neither is anybody else's board. The others are breaking the same code you are, so a rival's row is a question already asked and answered on your behalf; you get a count of how many rows they have spent and not one peg more.

Race it, or take ten rows between you

Racing gives everybody ten rows of their own against the same code, and whoever needs the fewest wins. Rows rather than seconds, because a clock would pay people for guessing.

Sharing gives the table ten rows and one each in turn, and you argue out loud: every mark on a shared board was printed for all of you, so there is nothing you are not allowed to say.

Questions people ask

Does Ten Rows need any English at all?

None. There is not a single word in the game — four pegs, two numbers back, ten rows. It is the one thing on this shelf that plays identically for everybody at a table whatever language they think in.

Can one person play it alone?

Yes, and the three bots are for exactly that. Each breaks a code a different way rather than at a different speed: one counts every peg before it will guess at an order, one only ever plays something that could be the answer, and one plays the 1976 minimax and has never needed a sixth row.

Does anybody have to install anything to play Ten Rows?

No. It runs in the browser everyone already has open. One person opens a room, reads out the six-character code or pastes the link into the channel, and everyone else is at the table in a couple of seconds.

Do we need accounts?

No. There is no sign-up, no password and no email address anywhere in the flow. You pick a name when you sit down, and that is the whole of it.

How many people can play Ten Rows?

1 to 12 — best with anyone, in any language. A room seats up to 12.

How long does a game of Ten Rows take?

About 15 minutes, which is the length of a coffee break rather than the length of a games night. Nobody is the host in the sense of holding the controls, so a round finishes whether or not everyone is still looking at it.

Does it work over a video call?

That is what it is for. The game is on the screen and the talking is on the call — nobody has to describe a board to anybody, and the parts that must stay private stay on the server rather than being read out.