In nine board tic-tac-toe, nine tic-tac-toe boards are themselves arranged in a 3x3 grid. The first player's move must go on the middle board; all moves afterwards are placed in the empty spaces on the board corresponding to the square of the previous move (that is, if a move were in the upper-left square of a board, the next move would take place on the upper-left board). If a player cannot move because the indicated board is full, the game ends in a draw. Victory is attained by getting three in a row on any board. This makes the game considerably longer and more involved than tic-tac-toe, with a definite opening, middle game, and endgame.