Literature review

1.Exploring the Possibilities of Using Tic-Tac-Toe to Think and Communicate about Mathematics  (Australian Mathematics Teacher,2008)

Doing mathematics, and thinking about how you are doing it at the same time, are not the easiest things to do. It is even more difficult if students are not aware that they should be attempting both processes at the same time. They are likely to concentrate on the immediate task of "doing" the mathematics, rather than trying to access the deeper process. Yet it is this deeper process that is really at the heart of mathematics. In turn, accessing this deeper process requires in part some command of the appropriate rational/logical language so communication with yourself and others can proceed effectively and efficiently. This article discusses the possibilities of using students' explorations of the traditional strategy game "tic-tac-toe," and some extensions, to set up situations for students to discuss and examine this process.

2.Tic-Tac-Toe Played as a Word Game (Word Ways,2010)

In Problem 48 in Your Move (McGraw-Hill, 1971), David Silverman described a linguistic version of tic-tac-toe consisting of a stockpile of the words ARMY, CHAT, FISH, GIRL, HORN, KNIT, SOUP, SWAN and VOTE. Players alternately select words, and the first to collect three words sharing a common letter is the winner.

In the single-letter analogue of Silverman's game, players draw alternately from a stockpile of nine different letters; the first to select the letters forming one of a specified list of nine words is the winner. To make it easy to remember these words, they can be written in the form of a 3-by-3 word square in which both diagonals are also words.

Squares are easy to find if you allow abbreviations, acronyms, proper names or foreign words. However, I'm half-convinced that there is no solution with common everyday words. It's almost spooky how you can find seven words but not the eighth. My near-misses:

 NOS   ARE   HOP   BED   FLU   DOS EAT   SIN   EAR   OAR   AIR
EAT WRY   POD   SKY   WHY   TEN   WRY 

In the first square, the first word can be used in a sentence such as "The NOS have it" summarizing a vote. …