From: boll@CS.ColoState.EDU (dave boll)
Subject: Misc games
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 18:03:27 GMT
Organization: Colorado State University, Computer Science Department


Below are three short games I've played. I'd be interested to
know if anyone has played these games, has thoughts on strategy,
etc.

  1) The 'knight's tour' game. Start with a chess knight on a corner
     square of a chessboard. Players take turns moving the knight; and
     the knight cannot move to a previously occupied square. Last
     person able to move the knight wins (or loses, if you want to
     play the reverse game)

  2) The game with no name. Play on 1/2 a chessboard (4x8). Each player
     has a chess king (which moves just like in chess). A move in this
     game consists of making a move with your king, then marking any
     square on the board. The square you marked then may not be moved
     onto by either player. Last person able to move wins. The starting
     positions are squares (2,2) and (3,7) in col/row notation.

  3) Hex. Does anyone play this game?

Here's some notes on these games:

  Knight's tour: As you get into the midgame, various dead ends will
    be formed. These dead ends will have varying lengths; but all you
    care about is if the length is odd or even. If it's an odd dead end,
    you should try to get into it, if its an even dead end, you should
    try to avoid it. I have a program that plays this game, but its
    pretty lame. All it does is look for a force win within 7 or 8 
    plys, and moves randomly if it doesn't see one. The program usually
    beats me, but isn't very revealing as far as strategy goes.

  No Name game: There tend to be two types of games here: sometimes the
    two kings will both get trapped in the same half of the board, and
    sometimes the two kings will be in separated areas. The case where
    the 2 kings are in the same part of the board is (it seems to me)
    much harder to analyze; sometimes you can obtain an advantage by
    using your own king to block one of the opponant's squares. I haven't
    yet tried to do this game with a program.

  Hex: (I'm not mentioning the rules here because I assume they're
    well known to readers of this newsgroup. If not, see Gardner's 1st
    book of Sci Am columns). You should know how to establish connections
    to an edge from 2, 3, and 4 hexes away. You should be *very* aware of
    how to place pieces 2 hexes apart so they are just as good as
    connected. You should be familiar with what I call a 'side extend',
    which is a 3 piece combination that gives you 2 connection points.
    Once you are familiar with these things, you have attained the rank 
    of 'mediocre', which is where I've been for a few years. When I
    play Hex, I'm usually trying to decide between 2 or 3 moves, since
    all others lead to an easily seen loss. So, a computer program that
    did some aggressive pruning should be able to search the tree to
    a fairly deep level. A while back I started, but never finished, a
    program to play this game. I have also read about a program that
    playes this game by turning it into an electrical network.     

 I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has thoughts on these games,
 or would be interested in playing them via email (provided I don't get
 too many replies!)
-- 
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     Dave Boll  boll@handel.cs.colostate.edu
                "The speed of time is 1 second per second"
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