Nomenclature

There is often little consistency between sources regarding Four in a Row nomenclature. This page describes some of the various forms, and notes which ones Foreign Arrow favors (which are also described on the (in) Rules page). Note that some of the data provided here is from sites with non-standard board sizes, since their nomenclature overall does not seem to display systematic differences from that of regular Four in a Row. Speaking of board sizes, Foreign Arrow always identifies them as (width)x(height), but there are sites that do the opposite.

Name of the Game

Abbreviations

Four in a row is abbreviated as 4iar or, less often, 4ir.

Other Names

Additionally, many other names may be used for the game. In fact, Connect Four®, a trademark of Hasbro, is probably more commonly used than Four in a Row. The following have also been seen or reported:

4 Across
4 in a line
Line4
Plot Four
Stack4
Tetralink
The Captain's Mistress (see the History page for more details)
Quadrow

In Other Languages

Danish: Fire [4] på stribe
Dutch: Vier [4] op een rij
French: Force 4; Puissance 4
German: Vier [4] Gewinnt
Italian: Forza 4
Spanish: Conecta 4

Notation

Like James D. Allen in (ex) Expert Play in Connect-Four and Victor Allis in (ex) A Knowledge-based Approach of Connect-Four (PDF) , Foreign Arrow refers to each move in a Four in a Row game by a letter-number combination. Each space on the playing grid is considered to reside in a lettered column and a numbered row. The following diagram illustrates how this works:

Position after 4. B2
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
6								Move List
5								1. D1 D2 2. D3 D4 3. A1 B1 4. B2
4
3
2
1

Many multiplayer game sites also use this system. However, a few, like (ex) littlegolem.net and (ex) kurnik.org (Java) , number the columns, and identify each move based only on the column it was played in.

Piece Colors

Unlike Chess or Go, Four in a Row does not have standard piece colors assigned to the first and second players. For the sake of having a standard, Foreign Arrow always refers to the first player as White or X and the second as Black or O. The following sections show how a variety of colors are used on the web in practice.

At Multiplayer Game Sites

Website	Player 1 Color	Player 2 Color
goldtoken.com	blue	red
brickgame.lego.com	blue	red
www.jippii.com/o...	green	blue
games4usa.com	green	blue
itsyourturn.com	purple	green
flyordie.com	red	blue
ludoteka.com/jue...	red	blue
tothegames.com	red	green
kurnik.org	red	green
yucata.de	red	yellow
brainking.com	white	black
pocket-monkey.com	white	black
www.atlanticgames....	white	black
gamescene.com/Mu...	white	black
littlegolem.net	yellow	red
jijbent.nl	yellow	red
yourturnmyturn.com	yellow	red

Computer Oponents

By First and Second Players

These sites have assigned colors to the first and second players that are not affected by who is the human player or the computer.

Website	Player 1 Color	Player 2 Color
server1.billsgames...	red	black
www.dtek.chalmer...	red	yellow
homepages.cwi.nl...	white	black
yourturnmyturn.c...	yellow	red

By Human and Computer

These sites have assigned colors to the computer and human player that are not affected by who is the first or second player.

Website	Human Color	Computer Color
4opeenrij.nl	green	red
pnahay.home.spry...	green	yellow
geocities.com/co...	red	black
jgames.com/conne...	red	black
pomakis.com/~pomak...	red	blue
www.creativepuzz...	red	blue
archimedes-lab.o...	red	yellow
farfarfar.com/ga...	red	yellow
genuineclass.com...	red	yellow
muglug.com/games...	red	yellow
met.open.ac.uk/g...	yellow	blue
www.novelgames.c...	yellow	red

Ambiguous

These sites do not allow the computer to move first, so the colors could be considered to be assigned to either player1/player2 or human/computer.

Website	Human Color	Computer Color
geocities.com/Re...	black	red
2dplay.com/conne...	blue	yellow
blazinggames.com...	red	blue
www.pimpernel.co...	red	blue
bodo.com/Applets...	red	green
pixelflo.com/009/	red	yellow
investori.com/ga...	white	red
farfarfar.com/ga...	yellow	red