Sources page biographical material

4.B.1. TIC TAC TOE = NOUGHTS AND CROSSES
Popular belief is that the game is ancient and universal -- e.g. see Brandreth, 1976. However the game appears to have evolved from earlier three in a row games, e.g. Nine Holes or Three Men's Morris, in the early 19C. See also the historical material in 4.B.5. The game is not mentioned in Strutt nor most other 19C books on games, not even in Kate Greenaway's Book of Games (1889), nor in Halliwell's section on slate games (op. cit. in 7.L.1, 1849, pp. 103-104), but there may be an 1875 description in Strutt-Cox of 1903. Babbage refers to it in his unpublished MSS of c1820 as a children's game, but without giving it a name. In 1842, he calls it Tit Tat To and he uses slight variations on this name in his extended studies of the game -- see below. The OED's earliest references are: 1849 for Tip tap toe; 1855 for Tit tat toe; 1861 for Oughts and Crosses. However, the first two entries may be referring to some other game -- e.g. the entries for Tick tack toe for 1884 & 1899 are clearly to the game that Gomme calls Tit tat toe. Von der Lasa cites a 1838-39 Swedish book for Tripp, Trapp, Trull. Van der Linde (1874, op. cit. in 5.F.1) gives Tik, Tak, Tol as the Dutch name. Using the works of Strutt, Gomme, Strutt-Cox, Fiske, Murray, the OED and some personal communications, I have compiled a separate index of 121 variant names which refer to 5 basic games, with a few variants and a few unknown games. The Murray and Parker material is given first, as it deals generally with the ancient history. Then I list several standard sources and then summarize their content. Other material follows that. Fiske says that van der Linde and von der Lasa (see 5.F.1) mention early appearances of Morris games, but rather briefly and I don't always have that material.

The usual # shape board will be so indicated. If one is setting down pieces, then the board is often drawn as a 'crossed square', i.e. a square with its horizontal and vertical midlines drawn, and one plays on the intersections. Fiske 127 says this form is common in Germany, but unknown in England and the US. In addition, the diagonals are often drawn, producing a 'doubly crossed square'. The squares are sometime drawn as circles giving a 'crossed circle' and a 'doubly crossed circle', though it is hard to identify the corners in a crossed circle. The 3 x 3 array of dots sometimes occurs. The standard # pattern is sometimes surrounded by a square producing a '3 x 3 chessboard'.

Fiske 129 says the English play with O and +, while the Swedes play with O and 1. My experience is that English and Americans play with O and X. One English friend said that where she grew up, it was called 'Exeter's Nose' as a deliberate corruption of 'Xs and Os'.

The first clear references to the standard game of Noughts and Crosses are Babbage (1820) and the items discussed under Tic-tac-toe below. Further clear references are: Cassell's, Berg, A wrangler ..., Dudeney, White and everything entered below after White.

Misère version: Gardner (1957); Scotts (1975);
Murray mentions Morris, which he generally calls Merels, many times. Besides the many specific references mentioned below and in 4.B.5, he shows, on p. 614, under Nine Holes and Three Men's Morris, a number of 3 x 3 diagrams.

Kurna, Egypt, (-14C) -- a double crossed square and a double crossed circle -- see Parker below.

Ptolemaic Egypt (in the BM, no. 14315) -- a square with # drawn inside. See below where I describe this, from a recent exhibition, as just a # board.

Ceylon -- a doubly crossed square -- see Parker below.

Rome and Pompeii -- doubly crossed circles.

Under Nine Holes, he says a piece can be moved to any vacant point; under Three Men's Morris, he says a man can only be moved along a marked line to an adjacent point, i.e. horizontally, vertically or along a main diagonal.

Under Nine Holes, he shows the # board for English Noughts and Crosses. He specifically notes that the pieces do not move. His only other mention of this board is for a Swedish game called Tripp, Trapp, Trull, but he does not state that the pieces do not move. He gives no other examples of the # board nor of non moving pieces.

He also mentions Five (or Six) Men's Morris, of which little is known. On p. 133, he mentions a 3 x 3 "board of nine points used for a game essentially identical with the 'three men's merels', which has existed in China from at least the time of the Liang dynasty (A.D. 502 557). The 'Swei shu' (first half of the 7th c.) gives the names of twenty books on this game."

H. Parker. Ancient Ceylon. ??, London, 1909; Asian Educational Services, New Delhi, 1981. Nerenchi keliya, pp. 577 580 & 644. There is a crossed square with small holes at the intersections at the Temple of Kurna, Upper Egypt,  14C. [Rohrbough, loc. cit. in 4.B.5, says this temple was started by Ramses I and completed by Seti in -1336/-1333, citing J. Royal Asiatic Soc. (1783) 17.] On p. 644, he shows 34 mason's diagrams from Kurna, which include #, # in a circle, crossed square with small holes at the intersections, doubly crossed square, doubly crossed circle. He cites Bell, Arch. Survey of Ceylon, Third Progress Report, p. 5 note, for for a doubly crossed square in Ceylon, c1C, but Noughts and Crosses is not found in the interior of Ceylon. The doubly crossed square was used in 18C Ireland. On pp. 643-665, he discusses appearances of the crossed square and doubly crossed circle as designs or characters and claims they have mystic significance. On p. 662, he lists many early appearances of the # pattern.

Murray 440, note 63, includes a reference to Soutendam; Keurboek van Delft; Delft, c1425, f. 78 (or p. 78?); who says games of subtlety are allowed, e.g. ... ticktacken. There is no indication if this may be our game and the OED indicates that such names were used for backgammon back to 1558. The OED doesn't cite: W. Shakespeare; Measure for Measure, c1604. Act I, scene ii, line 180 (or 196): "foolishly lost at a game of ticktack". Later it was more common as Tric-trac.

Murray 746 notes a Welsh game Gwyddbwyll mentioned in the Mabinogion (14C). The name is cognate with the Irish Fidchell and may be a Three Men's Morris, but the game was already forgotten by the 15C.
STANDARD SOURCES ON GAMES
Joseph Strutt. The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. (With title starting: Glig Gamena Angel-Ðeod., or the Sports ...; J. White, London, 1791, 1801, 1810). A new edition, with a copious index, by William Hone. Tegg, London, 1830, 1831, 1833, 1834, 1838, 1841, 1850, 1855, 1875, 1876, 1891. [The 1830 ed. has a preface, omitted in 1833, stating that the 1810 ed. is the same as the 1801 ed. and that Hone has only changed it by adding the Index and incorporating some footnotes into the text.] [Hall, BCB 263-266 are: 1801, 1810, 1830, 1831. Toole Stott 647-656 are: 1791; 1801; 1810; 1828-1830 in 10 monthly parts with Index by Hone; 1830; 1830; 1833; 1838; 1841; 1876, an expanded ed, ed by Hone. Heyl 300-302 gives 1830; 1838; 1850. Toole Stott 653 says the sheets were remaindered to Hone, who omitted the first 8pp and issued it in 1833, 1834, 1838, 1841. I have seen an 1855 ed. C&B list 1801, 1810, 1830, 1903. BMC has 1801, 1810, 1830, 1833, 1834, 1838, 1841, 1875, 1876, 1898.]

Strutt-Cox. The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. By Joseph Strutt. 1801. A new edition, much enlarged and corrected by J. Charles Cox. Methuen, 1903. The Preface sketches Strutt's life and says this is based on the 'original' 1801 in quarto, with separate plates which were often hand coloured, but not consistently, while the 1810 reissue had them all done in a terra cotta shade. Hone reissued it in octavo in 1830 with the plates replaced by woodcuts in the text and this was reissued in 1837, 1841 and 1875. (From above we see that there were other reissues.) "Mr. Strutt has been left for the most part to speak in his own characteristic fashion .... A few obvious mistakes and rash conclusions have been corrected, ... certain unimportant omissions have been made. ... Nearly a third of the book is new." Reprinted in 1969 and in the 1960s?

J. T. Micklethwaite. On the indoor games of school boys in the middle ages. Archaeological Journal 49 (Dec 1892) 319-328. Describes various 3 x 3 boards and games on them, including Nine Holes and "tick, tack, toe; or oughts and crosses, which I suppose still survives wherever slate and pencil are used as implements of education", Three Men's Morris and also Nine Men's Morris, Fox and Geese, etc.

Alice B. Gomme. The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland. 2 vols., David Nutt, London, 1894 & 1898. Reprinted in one vol., Thames & Hudson, London, 1984.

Willard Fiske. Chess in Iceland and in Icelandic Literature with Historical Notes on Other Table-Games. The Florentine Typographical Society, Florence, 1905. Esp. pp. 97-156 of the Stray Notes. P. 122 lists a number of works on ancient games.
These and the OED have several entries on Noughts and Crosses and Tic tac toe and many on related games, which are summarised below. Gomme often cites or quotes Strutt. The OED often gives the same quotes as Gomme. Gomme's references are highly abbreviated but full details of the sources can usually be found in the OED.