Towards solving the 7-in-a-row game

TL;DR

This paper investigates the game theoretic value of 7-in-a-row, applying proof number search with heuristics to approach solving the game, demonstrating significant progress but not a complete solution.

Contribution

It introduces heuristic improvements to proof number search for the 7-in-a-row game and evaluates their effectiveness in advancing towards solving it.

Findings

Heuristic enhancements improve proof number search efficiency.

Progress made towards solving the 7-in-a-row game.

The approach narrows the gap to a complete solution.

Abstract

Our paper explores the game theoretic value of the 7-in-a-row game. We reduce the problem to solving a finite board game, which we target using Proof Number Search. We present a number of heuristic improvements to Proof Number Search and examine their effect within the context of this particular game. Although our paper does not solve the 7-in-a-row game, our experiments indicate that we have made significant progress towards it.