Mind that UCThello has an option menu, too.
Selection of specific options might alter the basic rules
described as follows. Besides rule options you can find
additional options like showing or alternatively hiding
markers on available fields a player is allowed to
set own game pieces on own turn. Please make sure the
current game options are chosen as intended by both players
prior to game start.
Start of game. Black is allowed to set
onto either c4, or d3 flipping d4, or e6, or f5
flipping e5.
The game is played in turns by two players namely Black and White.
Starting position shows pieces on the central four fields.
Initially Black's pieces are on d5 and e4 (near-left-to-far-right
diagonal) while White's pieces are on e5 and d4
(near-right-to-far-left diagonal). Initial player is Black.
A player's turn consists in
setting a game piece of own color on an allowed
field followed by
flipping specific pieces from opponent's color into own color
by replacing these according to the rules.
The action of placing a game piece onto a vacant field is called a set.
A player must pass his turn if no set is available.
The four legal available sets for White in this position.
If setting c7 all three black pieces in a row get flipped. If setting
d6 three black pieces from three different directions in total get
flipped. b4 and f4 can only flipp two of Black's pieces each. White
may not pass. So where to set the white piece here?
Setting a game piece of own color on an empty vacant field is
considered legal or allowed if in at least one direction
(horizontally, vertically, diagonally) exactly this game piece
and another piece of own color already on board surrounds game pieces
of opponent's color in an unbroken row. Such that two own game pieces
form a bracket around the opponent's unbroken row of game pieces.
If such bracketing by the newly set game piece takes place in
multiple directions at once then flipping the opponent's pieces into own
game pieces is performed in all these affected directions.
Please assume the decision was setting
d6 then three black pieces from three different directions
got flipped as shown in total.
Another board situation with multiple available sets
for Black's turn. If setting onto a6 by Black then…
If choice is setting onto a6 by Black then just b6 gets flipped
but not d6 and e6 since c6 breaks the row here although there is
a black piece on f6.
Game is over if either both players must pass with no
available sets left or if there is no remaining empty field on the
board. The player having the most pieces of own color on the board
does win the game then.
Proposal is to offer a revanche or revenge match by the winner. As an
option the weaker opponent might choose the game options for the next
round.
Copyright (c) 2016 @author Oliver Merkel, Merkel(dot) Oliver(at) web(dot) de.
All rights reserved.
Logos, brands, and trademarks belong to their respective owners.
All source code also including code parts written in HMTL, Javascript, CSS is under MIT License.
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Oliver Merkel, Merkel(dot) Oliver(at) web(dot)de
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of
this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in
the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to
use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of
the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so,
subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER
IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
UCThello implements a two-player deterministic board game.
UCThello is a board game using Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) with UCB
(Upper Confidence Bounds) applied to trees (UCT in short) for the computer
player AI. The board game used for demonstration purposes of the UCT algorithm
is close to a game named Othello depending on selected options. In fact it
can be played depending on your configuration following the official
tournament rules of the WOF - World Othello Federation - if intended.
Other rule settings to play variants are available, too.
The basic concept of performing a player's turn like in UCThello can
be found in 19th century board games or possibly earlier like in Annex,
The game of Annexation, Reversi and quite modern successors like Othello
or variants like the two-or-more player game Rolit.
Depending on the reference one might find contradicting creators for the basic
concept and idea of flipping multicolored game pieces initiated by setting a
game piece of own color following a bracketting rule. Unsure but often cited
for Reversi you will find Lewis Waterman or John W. Mollett.
So a specific underlying game mechanics belongs to the public domain due to its
age and unknown creator. For own creations mind that trademarks do exist for
some of the games or possibly patents might exist for technical/mechanical
implementations.
Third Party Code Licenses
This UCThello implementation uses unmodified
independent code libraries provided by third parties.
Since their licenses might vary the corresponding information is
externally linked below. Thus these external links
will enable you to reproduce any copyright notice,
any related list of conditions, disclaimers, and especially
the copyright holders and authors of the corresponding third
party functionality.