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Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest

From bart <bc@freeuk.com>
Newsgroups comp.lang.c
Subject Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest
Date 2026-08-04 01:37 +0100
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <114rc7c$1ofjs$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References (5 earlier) <114m5rl$iil$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> <114maop$4q0u$1@dont-email.me> <114obmd$11up$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> <114r0vr$1lnh8$1@dont-email.me> <114r31g$1l3v$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>

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On 03/08/2026 23:00, R Kym Horsell wrote:
> In comp.lang.c James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>> On 2026-08-02 17:09, R Kym Horsell wrote:
>>> In comp.lang.c Mike Terry <news.dead.person.stones@darjeeling.plus.com> wrote:
>>>> On 02/08/2026 02:17, R Kym Horsell wrote:
>>>>> In comp.lang.c James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:
>>>>>> On 2026-07-31 02:19, R Kym Horsell wrote:
>>>>>> ...> With no summetries and counting who start, the order of the squares
>>>>>>> marked, and the final position as all befining "the game"
>>>>>>> then there are a couple million possibilities.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There's only 9 different choices for the first mark, 8 for the second,
>>>>>> etc. Ignoring the victory conditions, that means at most 9! = 362,880
>>>>>> games, no matter how you distinguish them. If you stop a game as soon as
>>>>>> one side wins, it's much smaller, I won't bother figuring out how many.
>>>>>
>>>>> I think you missed a few.
>>>>
>>>> James' account looks correct to me.  9! is just an upper bound, as he notes.
>>>>
>>>>> Games can be shorted if there is a winner.  That adds more possibilities.
>>>>
>>>> If a game ends with a winner in less than 9 moves, that /reduces/ the possibilities (i.e. reduces
>>>> from 9!), not "adding more".
>>>
>>> If you have have long games and also short games then
>>> there are more than just the long games. Right?
>>
>> No, I specified stopping a game as soon as it is won. The moves of every
> ...
> 
> Maybe we are talking at cross-purposes.
> 
> I think you're alluding to "no legal game can be a prefix of another
> legal game (although 2 legal games can share the prefix)".
> 
> IOW the total number of possible games is the sum  of the games of length
> 5, length 6, ... length 9.
> 
> I.e. the total is more than then number of games of length 9.
> 

I've done a simulation. Figures may not be right, but they look plausible:

Total number of games:  362880      (Ignores who goes first)
Won by player 1:        212256
Won by player 2:        104544
Drawn:                   46080

Players make all possible permutations of moves in turn, with no 
strategy. Games last from 5 to 9 moves:

34560 games with 5 moves (all won)
31968 games with 6 moves
95904 games with 7 moves
72576 games with 8 moves
127872 games with 9 moves (46080 were drawn)

Drawn games always take 9 moves.

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Thread

Tic Tac Toe Quest Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-07-29 14:10 +0200
  Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2026-07-29 08:14 -0400
    Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-07-29 14:28 +0200
      Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-07-29 20:30 +0800
        Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-07-29 14:38 +0200
          Turbo Vision (was: Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest) Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-07-29 20:46 +0800
            Re: Turbo Vision Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-07-29 14:57 +0200
              Re: Turbo Vision Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-07-29 21:14 +0800
              Re: Turbo Vision ... MS-DOS 5 Shell? "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2026-07-31 22:42 +0800
                Re: Turbo Vision ... MS-DOS 5 Shell? Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson <johann@myrkraverk.invalid> - 2026-08-05 04:13 +0800
                Re: Turbo Vision ... MS-DOS 5 Shell? usenet@dolik.dev (Andriy D) - 2026-08-05 11:38 +0000
                Re: Turbo Vision ... MS-DOS 5 Shell? JJ <jj4public@gmail.com> - 2026-08-05 20:46 +0700
      Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest R Kym Horsell <kym@sdf.org> - 2026-07-31 06:19 +0000
        Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2026-07-31 14:20 +0200
          Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest R Kym Horsell <kym@sdf.org> - 2026-07-31 22:05 +0000
            Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest steve g <Sgonedes1977@gmail.com> - 2026-08-08 01:35 -0400
              Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest R Kym Horsell <kym@sdf.org> - 2026-08-08 07:32 +0000
                Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest steve g <Sgonedes1977@gmail.com> - 2026-08-09 19:18 -0400
        Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2026-07-31 11:22 -0400
          Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2026-07-31 20:00 -0700
          Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest R Kym Horsell <kym@sdf.org> - 2026-08-02 01:17 +0000
            Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest Mike Terry <news.dead.person.stones@darjeeling.plus.com> - 2026-08-02 03:41 +0100
              Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest Mike Terry <news.dead.person.stones@darjeeling.plus.com> - 2026-08-02 04:19 +0100
              Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest R Kym Horsell <kym@sdf.org> - 2026-08-02 21:09 +0000
                Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest Mike Terry <news.dead.person.stones@darjeeling.plus.com> - 2026-08-03 01:54 +0100
                Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2026-08-03 17:25 -0400
                Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest R Kym Horsell <kym@sdf.org> - 2026-08-03 22:00 +0000
                Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2026-08-04 01:37 +0100
                Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2026-08-04 01:58 +0100
                Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest Mike Terry <news.dead.person.stones@darjeeling.plus.com> - 2026-08-04 03:16 +0100
                Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2026-08-04 11:51 +0100
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                Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest antispam@fricas.org (Waldek Hebisch) - 2026-08-04 11:05 +0000
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            Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2026-08-02 12:30 -0400
          Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2026-08-02 11:25 +0100
      Re: Tic Tac Toe Quest Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2026-08-01 07:40 -0400
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