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Re: [OT] Tic-tac-toe strategy: Start in corners?

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On 11/12/16 16:06, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
> "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On 10/12/2016 11:29 PM, Tom Del Rosso wrote:
>>> You should start in the corner, not the center.
>>
>> BTW, do you wanna to prove your claim? :)
>
> If I remember correctly, there are more ways of winning if you start in
> the corner (the proof is simply by counting games) and, since you can't
> be forced to lose if you start there, you could argue that you might as
> well do that.

Playing the game against people is very different from playing it 
against a computer. You won't fool a well-written program, but people 
can be suckered into losing. And the first rule of suckering people is 
to start in a corner. If you start in the middle, they'll pretty well 
know how to force a draw. But if you start in a corner, they're less 
likely to correctly select a safe move. Of course it's impossible to 
demonstrate this over Usenet, especially to programmers, because nobody 
is going to post a move without analysing it to death first. But in the 
real world, people don't do that. They know it's a forced draw, they 
assume they can't lose, and they play carelessly --- and then they don't 
understand why they lost.

-- 
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

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[OT] Play tic-tac-toe using e-Letters or i-Letters! "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2016-12-02 19:08 +0800
  Re: [OT] Tic-tac-toe strategy: Start in corners? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2016-12-11 12:31 +0800
    Re: [OT] Tic-tac-toe strategy: Start in corners? Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2016-12-11 16:06 +0000
      Re: [OT] Tic-tac-toe strategy: Winning? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2016-12-12 00:11 +0800
        Re: [OT] Tic-tac-toe strategy: Winning? Ralph Mowery <rmowery28146@earthlink.net> - 2016-12-11 11:35 -0500
      Re: [OT] Tic-tac-toe strategy: Start in corners? Jim Thompson <To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@On-My-Web-Site.com> - 2016-12-11 09:32 -0700
        Re: [OT] Games must have winner? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2016-12-12 12:10 +0800
      Re: [OT] Tic-tac-toe strategy: Start in corners? Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2016-12-11 17:26 +0000
        Re: [OT] Tic-tac-toe strategy: computers vs humans "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2016-12-12 12:12 +0800
      Re: [OT] Tic-tac-toe strategy: Start in corners? "Tom Del Rosso" <fizzbintuesday@that-google-mail-domain.com> - 2016-12-11 20:23 -0500
        Re: [OT] Tic-tac-toe strategy: Start in corners? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2016-12-12 12:14 +0800
          Re: [OT] Tic-tac-toe strategy: Start in corners? Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2016-12-12 08:41 +0000
            Tic-tac-toe as an 100% electronic game? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2016-12-12 18:44 +0800
        Re: [OT] Tic-tac-toe strategy: Start in corners? fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2016-12-12 10:02 -0800
        Re: [OT] Tic-tac-toe? Sodoku? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2016-12-16 12:52 +0800

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