Walls Questions, Answered Properly

Player 1, the light pawn that starts on the top row, moves first, and turns alternate from there. When you create an online game you choose which side you take, and against the AI you decide which side it plays. The first-move advantage in Walls is genuinely small: a single tempo rarely decides a game on its own, because the loser of that tempo can usually answer with a wall.

No, and this is the rule that defines the whole game. A wall may never completely cut either player off from their goal. After every placement, both pawns must still have at least one open route, however long and winding, to the row they are racing toward. A wall that would seal a player in is illegal, and our board simply refuses to place it. Walls can lengthen a route but never close it, which is why you win by being faster, not by trapping. The rules page has a diagram of this.

Ten each, and no more are ever handed out. Because the supply is fixed and every wall is permanent, your walls are scarce currency. Spend one that does not lengthen your opponent's path and you have simply handed them a free turn in the race. Running out early, with the finish line still far off, is one of the quickest ways to lose.

You jump. When your opponent's pawn is directly next to yours, you do not waste a move stepping around it. If the square directly beyond them is open, you leap straight over and land on it, covering two squares at once. If a wall or the edge of the board blocks that straight jump, you may instead land on either square to the side of the opponent. This sideways jump is the only time a pawn ever lands on a diagonal, and it exists so a face-off can always be resolved.

No. Each turn is exactly one action: move your pawn one square, or place one wall, never both, and you can never pass. That stark either-or is what gives Walls its tension, because every wall you place is a step you did not take toward your own goal.

No. A wall stays exactly where you put it for the rest of the game. There is no taking it back, which is precisely why placement deserves a moment's thought: a wall dropped in the wrong groove is gone for good, and a careless one can end up blocking your own route as much as your opponent's.

Yes. A wall blocks movement across its edge for both players, including the one who placed it. This catches new players out: a wall that adds a long detour for your opponent but also stretches your own path can be a losing trade. Always check what a wall does to your route before you commit it.

Count the race, then decide. Trace the shortest open path for each pawn and see who needs fewer steps to reach their goal. If you are ahead, keep moving and save your walls; you do not need them. If you are behind, spend walls to lengthen your opponent's route until the count comes back to even. The best walls sit directly across the opponent's shortest path and force the longest possible detour. Our strategy guide builds the whole game plan around this count.

Wasting walls. The classic errors are placing a wall the opponent just steps around, which spends a turn for nothing, and emptying your whole supply early so you have nothing left when the race is close at the finish. The fix is one habit: before placing a wall, ask whether it costs your opponent more than the tempo it costs you. If not, move instead.

Levels 1 and 2 if you are new. They spend walls loosely and misjudge the race, exactly the mistakes you need to practice punishing while your own wall sense forms. Level 3 plays a solid, considered game. Levels 4 and 5 look further ahead and will make you pay for every wall that does not earn its keep and every step in the wrong direction; these top two levels require a free account to play. Move up when you win more than half your games, and remember the leaderboard pays more for beating the higher levels.

Yes. The game runs in your browser with nothing to install and no account needed for casual play. Three ways to play: against a friend on the same screen, against a friend anywhere in the world by sharing a short game code, or against SartabaAI at five levels. A free account is optional and adds saved statistics and a spot on the Walls leaderboard.

Everything happens in the quick setup panel on the Walls page. The numbers below match the numbers on the screenshot:

Two details worth knowing: you can change the difficulty between games as you improve, and if you set both sides to Human, the same screen becomes a board for two, with a friend beside you taking the other pawn.

Playing against a friend takes one player creating the game and one player joining it. The numbers below match the numbers on the screenshot:

The creator sets all the game options, so the joining player does not need to touch the setup at all. The same flow works in every game on the site, not just Walls.

Yes. The move history panel beside the board lists every move and wall of the current game as it happens. When a game ends, you can also use the Download Game option to save a video replay of it, which is a good way to study a loss: replay it and find the wall that did not pay for itself, or the turn you raced when you should have blocked.