Welcome to Connect 4!

🔥 GET READY TO DROP IT LIKE IT’S HOT—STRATEGICALLY, OF COURSE! 🔥

This isn’t just a game of colorful discs…

It’s a high-voltage battlefield where every second counts and every drop can shatter your opponent’s dreams!

Stack like a boss. Block like a legend. Outsmart, outmaneuver, and CRUSH the grid as you race to forge

FOUR IN A ROW—horizontally, vertically, or diagonally—before they even see it coming!

Ridiculously easy to learn.

Brutally addictive to master.

Guaranteed to ignite epic trash-talk and heart-pounding friendly rivalries that’ll have you both yelling at the board!

So grab your discs, lock onto that grid, and UNLEASH YOUR MOVE.

Four connects = TOTAL VICTORY. LET THE SHOWDOWN EXPLODE! 🔴🟡

Game Strategy

🔥 Connect Four Strategies: Dominate Fast 🔥 Core: 1st player wins perfect play.

• Win with: Center control + Forks.
• Center King: Drop Column 4 first. Then fight 3 & 5. (One disc = 13 lines!)
• Block or Die: Opp has 3-in-row (open both ends)? Block NOW.
• Fork = Win: One move creates 2 threats. Opp blocks 1 → you win. Build in rows 3-4.
• Every Move: Win now / Block / Create threat. Master diagonals.
• Checklist: Win? Block? Fork? Center stronger?
• Avoid: Edge starts, ignoring diagonals. Drop center. Force forks. Crush them. 🚀

Technical Summary

Core: Full Minimax + α-β pruning on fast 64-bit bitboards.

Fidelity: Exact gravity rules, win/draw detection, smooth animations, menus + 3 modes (HvH, HvAI, AIvAI).

Modes: Human vs. Human (HvH), Human vs. AI (HvAI) and AI vs. AI (AIvAI).

Key Upgrades:

• Depth-adjusted scoring: (42−depth)×100 → hunts early wins, delays losses.
• Dynamic column ordering (center-first) → massive pruning, 8–10 plies in <50 ms.
• Window-based heuristic (aspiration search) counting 3-in-rows, forks & center control.

Result: Instantly blocks threats, sets up strategic forks, plays near-perfect on Hard.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Suggested workflow:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature.
3. Make changes and add tests where appropriate.
4. Open a pull request describing your changes.

Please include descriptive commit messages and keep changes focused.

Tests

If you add unit tests, include instructions to run them here (for example, using pytest):

pip install pytest
pytest

License

MIT License.

Contact

If you have questions or suggestions, open an issue or submit a pull request. Mention @santakd for visibility.