This would work with any number of levels beyond level four. It is simply a matter of printing the AI opponent's responses to different situations and scripting up until I run out of time, then repeating the process until I have a solution.

I can actually test level four (and script that too) without having to make my own solver algorithm.

I can speed up my solution by scripting the first three levels.

I noticed that the AI was replying to my moves the same way everytime. Therefore, on level 4 I played all the same moves and again ran out of time. On my second speed round, I noticed that I was able to beat levels 1 and 2 with the same method and level three appeared to be the same as well. Okay, I thought, I’ll try one more time and then script the solution. I was able to beat the first three levels, but again ran out of time on the fourth level. So I restart the script and play as fast as I can. I know that it is a “solved game”, meaning that there is a way for the first player to always win. In fact, I cannot remember the last time I lost a game of Connect Four. It was one of my favorite games as a child because I almost never lost.

Something most people don’t know about me is that I love Connect Four. Sure enough, I’m able to beat the first two AI levels and run out of time on the third. But, to put my assumptions to a test, I run the client as is.

This is a standard practice done to allow a user to see how to solve a challenge without allowing them to do it manually. Like other, similar CTF challenges, I figure the AI will get harder and harder to beat and the time to solve will get shorter and shorter. Script a connect four solver to beat AI opponent.Įxtracting the zip download for this challenge resulted in a python socket challenge, so I know that this will be a scripting challenge.Ĭonn = socket.create_connection(C4_SERVER)Ĭlearly they have a spot for a scripted solution.

Connect four code python