How's my basic AI?

Using recursion in order to get my player to the goal.

I really want to know something though.
In this area of my code:
/////////////////////////Y <= tYy?

Why does ‘y’ need to be ‘<=’ and ‘x’ is just ‘<’?

public boolean runMaze()
      {
            boolean done = moveTowardsTarget(player.getX(), player.getY(), goal.getX(), goal.getY());
            
            System.out.println("\n" + player.getX() + " " + player.getY());
            System.out.println(goal.getX() + " " + goal.getY());
            
            return done;
      }
      
      
      private boolean moveTowardsTarget(int x, int y, int tX, int tY)
      {
            display();
            
            int xTx = (x - tX);
            int tXx = (tX - x);
            int yTy = (y - tY);
            int tYy = (tY - y);
            
            if(xTx <  tXx && x > -1 && x < 3)
            {
                  playPosLastX = player.getX();
                  playPosLastY = player.getY();
                  movePlayerToTile(x++, y);
                  return moveTowardsTarget(x, y, tX, tY);
            }
/////////////////////////Y <= tYy?
            else if(yTy <= tYy && y > -1 && y < 3)
            {
                  playPosLastX = player.getX();
                  playPosLastY = player.getY();
                  movePlayerToTile(x, y++);
                  return moveTowardsTarget(x, y, tX, tY);
            }
            else
            {
                  return true;
            }
      }
      
      private void movePlayerToTile(int x, int y)
      {
            if(directionIsValid(x, y))
            {
                  player.setLocation(x, y);
                  tiles[playPosLastX][playPosLastY] = Entities.FLOOR;
                  tiles[player.getX()][player.getY()] = player;
            }
      }
      
      private boolean directionIsValid(int x, int y)
      {
            if(x < 0 || y < 0 || x > 2 || y > 2)
                  return false;
            else if(!tiles[x][y].isPassable())
                  return false;
            
            return true;
      }
      
      private void display()
      {
            System.out.println("\n");
            
            for(int y=0; y < 3; y++)
            {
                  for(int x=0; x < 3; x++)
                  {
                        if((x % 2) == 0 && x != 0)
                              System.out.println(tiles[x][y].getValue());
                        else
                              System.out.print(tiles[x][y].getValue());
                  }
            }
      }