Probability of winning a board game by chance












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What is the chance of winning a board game like Connect4 by chance? The player who makes the first turn could theoretically win in a perfect game all the time. How can I calculate the probability that this is achieved by playing random moves?



I assume a board game of 6x7. The opponent makes perfect moves, which should give the probability an upper bound. A tighter upper and lower bound would be great too. At the moment it looks like that in 300'000 games against a random player the winning probability for random is about 8-12%. Whilst writing this I just noticed that I didn't log how many of those 8-12% where ties... I'll add this in an update in another 300'000 games.



Which branch of mathematics deals with such kind of problems? Pure combinatorics or maybe game theory?










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    2












    $begingroup$


    What is the chance of winning a board game like Connect4 by chance? The player who makes the first turn could theoretically win in a perfect game all the time. How can I calculate the probability that this is achieved by playing random moves?



    I assume a board game of 6x7. The opponent makes perfect moves, which should give the probability an upper bound. A tighter upper and lower bound would be great too. At the moment it looks like that in 300'000 games against a random player the winning probability for random is about 8-12%. Whilst writing this I just noticed that I didn't log how many of those 8-12% where ties... I'll add this in an update in another 300'000 games.



    Which branch of mathematics deals with such kind of problems? Pure combinatorics or maybe game theory?










    share|cite|improve this question









    $endgroup$















      2












      2








      2





      $begingroup$


      What is the chance of winning a board game like Connect4 by chance? The player who makes the first turn could theoretically win in a perfect game all the time. How can I calculate the probability that this is achieved by playing random moves?



      I assume a board game of 6x7. The opponent makes perfect moves, which should give the probability an upper bound. A tighter upper and lower bound would be great too. At the moment it looks like that in 300'000 games against a random player the winning probability for random is about 8-12%. Whilst writing this I just noticed that I didn't log how many of those 8-12% where ties... I'll add this in an update in another 300'000 games.



      Which branch of mathematics deals with such kind of problems? Pure combinatorics or maybe game theory?










      share|cite|improve this question









      $endgroup$




      What is the chance of winning a board game like Connect4 by chance? The player who makes the first turn could theoretically win in a perfect game all the time. How can I calculate the probability that this is achieved by playing random moves?



      I assume a board game of 6x7. The opponent makes perfect moves, which should give the probability an upper bound. A tighter upper and lower bound would be great too. At the moment it looks like that in 300'000 games against a random player the winning probability for random is about 8-12%. Whilst writing this I just noticed that I didn't log how many of those 8-12% where ties... I'll add this in an update in another 300'000 games.



      Which branch of mathematics deals with such kind of problems? Pure combinatorics or maybe game theory?







      combinatorics game-theory






      share|cite|improve this question













      share|cite|improve this question











      share|cite|improve this question




      share|cite|improve this question










      asked Dec 19 '18 at 6:42









      Mr.Sh4nnonMr.Sh4nnon

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