Right. I could find many chess programs I could beat, even though I admit that I am terrible at chess. Does that mean there aren't any good ones?

Yes, there are many more programs that don't play perfectly but there are also those that do.

The original Connect4 board game is 7 x 6. That size has been solved to be a forced win for player 1 from the start, and there are actually quite a few programs that, when playing first, WILL WIN (not draw) every time. That's why 8 x 8 is used here - it hasn't been solved (at least not yet) :-)

If you can place a piece anywhere, to connect four is very trivial for player 1 to force.

By "Spiders Web shape" do you mean hexagons? (ie: 3 directions to create lines rather than four?)

Yep, it does! I'll have to experiment with it a bit and see how it works! At least it would get rid of those pesky occasional draws... :-)

Nope, except I keep losing to the TitOT software...as both colours...lol :-)

Seems like a fun game though!

Ok, I guess it is a forced win for player 1 from the start...! :-)

It still doesn't appear to be a forced win for either player...

Do you mean that it would be like players "shoot" their pieces from an edge and they travel until they hit another piece (ie: if a space was surrounded on all four sides no one could ever move to it)?

If it had to be in the "center", it would have to be an odd-sized board. And I assume you mean only orthogonal "sticking" (ie: not diagonal)? I don't think it would be an easy win for the first player.

I assume you mean open invites can only be sent if the playing sending it is to play first? That would just create a problem similar to IYT - you have to figure out who has to invite who to play certain colours. I don't think anything needs to be changed - Five in Line is even more imbalanced...a proven forced win from the start by player 1 (by move 24 or something like that). If there are invites waiting for the wrong colour, don't accept them.

Why should a two-game match be forced?? If you think that's the only fair way to play, then refuse to play any single games and only play two-game matches. If someone wants to play a single game, why should you try and stop them?

Hexagons could be fun, although i imagine it would be even easier for player 1 (having 6 directions from each piece rather than 4).

Without a much larger board, 5 in a line would almost never happen but could be fun.

I would have to study it more, but my first impression tells me that a "free space" would give player 1 a much larger advantage, if not a forced win.

Yes, that 2660 rating leads everyone to believe you're not quite sure how to play, M4tt ;-)

My strategy is to try and get 4 in a row. :-)
lol

Without looking at the game, i will assume that the last move filled the bottom row, making it dissappear and everything else drop down. The blue square is to indicate the last move was in that column. It is very possible to have several moves in the same square (in the bottom row only) because of this rule. Hope that helps!
Kevin

Thanks! Now i'm happy (for now! lol) :-)

When the board fills up, is the game a draw, or is it a win for the first player? If it is a draw, the second player can simply mirror what the first player does (same thing on other side of board) and never get Four in a row (only the first player can). If it is a win for the first player, it should be specified in the rules. Thanks!