Connect-k

I recently had the opportunity to use Connect-k, a framework designed for experimenting with and testing general artificial intelligences (AIs) for games within the Connect-k family. This game family comprises games defined by three parameters: k, p, and q, and is played on a Go-style board. Connect-k games involve two players - black and white - who take turns placing stones on the board. The first player (black) plays q stones on their first turn, with each player then playing p stones on every succeeding turn. The winner is the first player to form a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal sequence of k stones.

The Connect-k family includes popular games like Tic-Tac-Toe and Go-moku, but also features a new game - Connect-6 - which has been analyzed by Dr. I-Chen Wu in a series of papers that attempt to show its fairness. However, this has not been decisively proven.

Connect-k's origins trace back to a University of Minnesota undergraduate Artificial Intelligence course project during the Spring 2007 semester. The project group, which included Jeff Deitch, Gabe Emerson, and Erik Shimshock, aimed to develop general game-playing algorithms that could handle any game within the Connect-k family. Their resultant program - currently the only available open-source program for playing Connect-6 - is highly effective and offers a seamless gaming experience.

Overall, I highly recommend Connect-k for any AI and game enthusiasts looking to explore the vast potential of Connect-k games. Its features and capabilities make it an invaluable tool to experiment with various AI systems and see how they handle challenging games within the Connect-k family.