This is my favorite category. The programs listed here will be those of positional strategic board games involving no chance events or hidden information. Examples would be: go, reversi, hex, ataxx, abalone. Many of these games are extremely simple in rules yet defy mathematical analysis for a optimal strategy. Often mathematical theory of sorts can be derived or applied to them. My love of these games are not so much as playing them, but analyzing and figuring out algorithms about them. There is a two volume book on the general mathematical aspects of board games and puzzles: Winning Ways by E R Berlekamp, J H Conway, R K Guy. 1982. (amazon.com↗)
2002-08: There is a new book out The Dots-and_boxes Game by Elwyn R Berlekamp, (2000). (amazon.com↗)
For rich info about board games, see Wikipedia: Solved board games↗.
above: go, at http://games.yahoo.com (free registration) Java
Go is a extremely complex game, particular difficult to program computer to play it. Check this site for computer go info: http://www.reiss.demon.co.uk/webgo/compgo.htm
“GNU Go” is a computer program that plays go (http://www.gnu.org/software/gnugo/gnugo.html). There's a Mac OS X version called Goban with very good graphical interface at http://www.sente.ch/software/goban/ Computer go is extremely weak as of 2003. Any go hobbiest can beat any computers. OSX Mac Win Linux Java
Here is perhaps the only book on programing go: Mathematical Go (amazon.com↗) by David Wolfe and Elwyn R Berlekamp, 1997.
For latest info on computer go, see: Computer Go↗.
above: Go played on 33344 tiling. Black to play. c2.5 or d3 are good moves. This particular tiling makes a good game, even though there are 5 liberties per node.
Freed Go (software) by Lewey Geselowitz. It plays go on various 2D and 3D grids. Highly recommended. http://www.leweyg.com/lc/freedgo.html Win OSX
For more about go on different boards, see: Xah's Go Board variations.
Game of Hex is a board game popularized by Martin Gardner's Scientific American in the 1960s. On a diamond shaped hexagonal board, two players alternatively place their pieces vying for a unbroken connection between opposite edges of the board.
above: Hexy by Vadim V Anshelevich.
As of year 2000, the best hex program is by Vadim V Anshelevich, available for Windows platform only, at the author's home page: http://home.earthlink.net/~vanshel/. The site includes his thesis.Win
For latest info on Hex, see Hex (game)↗.
Hex board up to 9x9 has been solved by Jing Yang: http://www.ee.umanitoba.ca/~jingyang/.
References:
Chinese Checkers. Pieces move by jumping over other pieces. The goal is to be the first to arrive on the opposite side.
http://games.yahoo.com has a great Chinese Checker online. (require free registration) Java
For more info, see: Chinese checkers↗
The game reversi.
The game is made popular by computer. Two player take turns placing disks of his color on a 8x8 square board. Opponent's pieces that lies between your pieces will be changed to your color. The winner is the one with most pieces on the board.
2002-09-29. The champion of Reversi is no longer human. Program Logistello by Michel Buro ↗ beat the current world champion Takeshi Murakami 6 to 0 in 1997 August.
For detail, see: Reversi↗
Check out the reversi game server at games.yahoo.com. You can play with hundreds of human opponents around the world online. Really nice. Java
Attax is a arcade game in the early 1990s. The game is similar to reversi in that you flip over your opponent's pieces, but instead by sandwitching, you flip adjacent ones.
You can play the original arcade version of Ataxx on your personal computer by downloading MAME (or macmame.org) (basically, this program lets you play on your computer all early arcade video games up to about 1997.). Mac Win Linux
For more info about Ataxx, see: Ataxx↗.
above left: The initial positions of abalone. Above right: mid game.
Abalone is a game played on a hexagonal grid. The object of the game is to push your opponent's pieces off the board.
For more info, see Abalone (board game)↗.
Five-in-a-row is a very popular game. Because the advantag of the first player, variosu rules has been designed to limit the first player's advantage. For more info, see: Gomoku↗.