Hi there,

a quick question. What is the current state of the AI for this game?

good or bad (or in between) ?

size-4 - excellent (low branching factor, tactical-oriented)

size-5 - decent

6 - poor

6 - non-existing

i believe that we can expect solving the game for size-4 and maybe size-5 soon.

sorry, i thought the question considers havannah…:-)

Yea. I meant Breakthrough :)

How good is the current Breakthrough AI?

Perfect play on 3x7 and 5x5, by JC Haugland's program, did you try http://www.neutreeko.net/Breakth55.java ?

Just type in a cmd where it is saved:

javac Breakth55.java

followed by java -mx280m Breakth55

(best play is a lost in 26 moves by first player).

Well I'm not sure you can call it an AI, it is more like an oracle…

How good is the AI at Size-8?

I have not yet had the privilege of playing any AI in Breakthrough. If you get a decent AI bot playing the game, I would love to have a shot at it!

breakthrough might be more popular (which it deserves to be) if a variant size of 7x7 were offered also. when the game was first introduced, it was recommended to be 7x7, according to what i read. the early part of the game at 8x8 can be a bit boring, taking many moves for the action to begin. 7x7 might be a better introuction to the game for beginners, who once hooked would be more likely to appreciate 8x8.