Gomoku AI

A bot capable of playing Gomoku (Five in a Row). The bot uses a combination of alpha-beta pruning and threat-space search to determine its moves.

Play here against the bot (note: it might take a while for the page to load).

Quick start (using Docker)

To install and run the application using Docker follow these steps:

• Install Docker
• Create a Docker image: docker build --pull --rm -f "Dockerfile" -t gomokuai:latest .
• Start a Docker container: docker run --rm -it -p 7682:7682/tcp gomokuai:latest
• Browse to http://localhost:7682.

Manual installation

Instead of using Docker you can also manually install the application.

Step 1: Install the bot

First you need to build the command line application.

• If you are using Windows then you have two options. The first option is to install Visual Studio and open the solution gomoku-ai.sln. Next, choose the Release configuration and press build. The other option is to install MSYS2 and GCC, for example by following this tutorial. Then run ./make from an MSYS2 terminal.
• If you are using Linux then run ./make.

In both cases you should now have a file bin/release/gomoku-ai[.exe].

Step 2: Install the server

The command line application has no graphical interface. To play against the bot in the browser, install a Node.js server as follows:

• Install Node.js
• Inside the gomoku-server directory, run npm install && npm start
• Browse to http://localhost:7682

Controls (browser client)

• Left mouse button: Place a stone
• N: New game (you are able to specify command line parameters)
• M: New game
• B: Toggle board
• L: Toggle log
• D: Toggle dark theme
• S: Show board string
• Delete: Stop
• U: Undo move
• Enter: Redo move
• F: Let the bots finish (no more breaks)
• E: Toggle editor
• 1/2/3/4: Enable editor and change the left mouse button action to:
  • 1: Place black stone
  • 2: Place white stone
  • 3: Place block
  • 4: Highlight
• R: Toggle highlights
• Right mouse button: Remove stone (editor)
• H: Enable human supervisor (for debugging)

Command line arguments

Argument	Description
-h or --help	Show a help message
-w or --width	Set the width and height of the playing field (default=15)
-H or --height	Specify a different height for the playing field (default=0)
-n or --stones-to-win	Set the required minimum number of stones in a row to win (default=5)
-q or --quiet	No verbose logging
-vq or --very-quiet	No slightly-verbose logging
-uv or --ultra-verbose	Enable ultra-verbose logging
-sc or --swap-colors	Player 2 is the black player in the first game
-fc or --fixed-colors	The players do not swap colors after each game
-ms or --manual-steps	Pause after each move in an ai-vs-ai game
-hb or --hide-board	Hide the playing field
-rm or --random-moves	Specify the number of initial forced random moves (default=0)
-rb or --random-blocks	Specify the number of initial random blocks (default=0)
--black	Specify initial black stones
--white	Specify initial white stones
--block	Specify initial blocks
-ws or --white-starts	The white player has the first move
-pb or --playback	Specify the first moves to execute
-tl or --time-limit	Set the turn time limit (default=0.500000)
-hm or --human	Set ai to a human player
-ai or --computer	Set ai to the default ai
-tss or --threat-space-search	Set ai to the threat space search ai
-ab or --alpha-beta	Set ai to the alpha-beta ai
-pns or --proof-number-search	Set ai to the proof-number search ai
-rd or --random	The ai plays random moves
-fd or --fixed-depth	Specify a fixed depth for the alpha-beta search. Time limit is ignored when a fixed depth is set (default=0)
-um or --unsafe-moves	Do not search for safe moves
-nt or --no-tracking	Parameter used by alpha-beta
-mml or --max-mask-length	Parameter used by alpha-beta (default=10)
-ag or --aggressiveness	Determines the aggressiveness of the alpha-beta search (default=0.000000)
-of or --only-fours	Only consider four-threat sequences
-tb or --table	Temporary
-nc or --no-combinations	Skip the combination stages of the threat space search
-nh or --no-halt-on-wts	Do not switch to manual steps when a winning threat sequence is found
-swd or --satisfied-with-draw	The proof-number search ai is also satisfied with a draw instead of with a win only
-jc or --json-client	Interact with a json client instead of the command line
-nsc or --no-sanity-checks	No sanity checks
-as or --auto-start	Automatically start a new game when a game has ended
-b or --battle	Shortcut for --auto-start --hide-board --no-halt-on-wts --quiet --very-quiet
-peb or --print-every-board	Print the state of the game after every move
-s or --seed	Initial seed for the random number generator (default=-1)
-hs or --human-supervisor	Have veto rights over the moves of the ai (for debugging)

Many arguments have player 1 and player 2 counterparts by appending '1' or '2'. For example, to set player 2 to the default ai, use -ai2.