The boxes are counted and you are winning this one. Exactly one edge keeps it. Draw the wrong one and the engine, which is perfect, will not give it back.
About Chain
Chain is the daily boxes endgame. Everyone knows the game from the back of a school exercise book: join two dots, close a box, go again. Almost nobody plays the ending, which is where the whole thing is actually decided.
Once the safe edges run out, every move opens a chain for the other player, so the game turns into a question of who runs out of quiet moves first. That is why taking every box on offer can lose: handing the last two back keeps your opponent on move, and the move is often worth more than the boxes. Some days that is right and some days it is exactly wrong, which is the read the puzzle asks for.
Every board is a real position reached by a real game, checked so that exactly one edge still wins it. More dailies: Four, Mate, Check.
Chain, in short
How do you play Chain?
The safe edges are gone and the boxes are counted in your favor. One edge keeps it, and the free box is usually the trap.
Is Chain free to play?
Yes. Chain is free to play in your browser on Mind Loft, with no app to install and no account required.
When does a new Chain puzzle come out?
A new Chain arrives every day at midnight Eastern time, and Sundays bring the Sunday Edition, the biggest or hardest board of the week.
What kind of puzzle is Chain?
Chain is a daily endgame puzzle from Mind Loft: take them, or leave them. Puzzle type: dots and boxes endgame. It is part of the daily end game puzzles lineup.
Can I play past Chain puzzles?
Yes. Every past Chain board is in the daily puzzle archive, along with the day's standings.
What other daily end game puzzles does Mind Loft have?