Sirius

Sirius is an othello game-playing software that offers a challenging level of play through its AI opponent. From its diverse range of settings, the AI opponent's strength can be adjusted to give users a suitable opponent. This program uses a plain alpha-beta search with hashing to determine its next moves.

In order to differentiate between a good and a bad position on the board, the AI opponent uses a pattern-based evaluation function. The patterns it uses are the nine discs surrounding each corner and the eight discs forming the edge of the board. The evaluation function also takes into account mobility, potential mobility, and parity. To enhance the user experience, the AI opponent can utilize a simple opening book for the initial nine moves.

During the midgame, around 200,000 nodes per second are searched and evaluated on a PIII 750 MHz, with even more transpositions and a less costly evaluation function in the endgame. In the latest release, it features a Russian translation by Alexandre Prokoudine and fix a problem with non-latin UTF-8 characters by Vyacheslav Sdiconov. The opening book has also been increased threefold, and hints have been made insensitive at startup. Debian users can find a man page for the software.

In essence, Sirius is an outstanding Othello game-playing software that delivers a challenging level of play through its AI opponent along with various customization options.