magic-toyshop: catharine's dots & boxes strategy [spoilers]


13 Nov 1995 13:18:31 GMT

so, i finally beat catharine at dots & boxes. i'm a bit puzzled by the
strategy she uses, though; spoilers below.

(further below)

(still further below)

i noticed that catharine was using a symmetry-based strategy until the
`endgame'; on paper, i had the following idea for winning (A, B, ... are
my moves; a, b, ... are catharine's, and c+/c& are potential moves):

. c . b .

a
. . .

A D
. B . C .

from which point i win. however, she doesn't allow the game to get in
this state; what happens is:

. . b .

a
. . .

A c*
. B . C .

so i played around some more, and won using

. b . .

c a
. D . .

A C
. c+ . B .

and also

. b . a .

c
. . .

C D c&
. A . B .

so my (linked) questions are:
why does catharine break the symmetry strategy by playing c*?
conversely, why doesn't she break the strategy & play c+ or c& to win?

i'm thinking it's something to do with corners...

-- richard

-- 
_______________________________________________________________________________

richard barnett richard@wg.icl.co.uk _______________________________________________________________________________