Six-Three Stacking and Why Some Players Prefer It

Splitting the board into two flat regions instead of one gives you somewhere to put the awkward pieces.

An alternative to the classic nine-column shape: build six columns to one height and three to another, with a step between them, keeping the well open as usual.

The idea

A single flat surface nine wide sounds ideal but has a weakness. S and Z pieces need a one-cell step to sit cleanly. A perfectly flat nine-column stack has no step anywhere, so every S and Z either creates a hole or forces a spike.

Splitting the surface into two regions at different heights gives you a permanent step, and that step is exactly what the awkward pieces want.

How it is maintained

Keep the six-wide region flat and the three-wide region flat, with a one-cell difference between them. When you clear, both regions drop together and the step survives.

The step can be anywhere; six and three is just a common split that leaves both regions wide enough to be useful.

The trade-off

Advantage: far fewer forced holes. There is always somewhere for an S or Z.

Cost: slightly more to keep track of. You are maintaining two surfaces rather than one, and it is easier to let the step drift into a two-cell difference, which is a canyon rather than a step.

Who it suits

Players who find themselves repeatedly ruined by S and Z pieces. If your runs end because a green or red piece arrived and there was nowhere for it, this shape directly addresses that.

Players chasing maximum efficiency sometimes prefer the flat nine because it handles I, O, L and J marginally better. The difference is small; the S and Z problem is not.

Practising it

Play a few runs consciously maintaining the step, and notice how often you place an S or Z into it without a second thought. That relief is the whole benefit. Then go back to a flat stack and notice how often the same pieces are a problem.

Read next

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• Read the Queue, Not the Falling PieceIf you are deciding where the current piece goes while it falls, you are already too slow for level ten.
• Use Hold on Purpose, Not as an Undo ButtonThree good reasons to hold, and one very common bad one.
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• Where Pieces Spawn and Why the Buffer ExistsA couple of hidden rows above the visible field give rotations somewhere to go.