a zugzwang is something i learned about in chess, but seeing it applied to similar turn-based games is really eye-opening. by eliminating all of your opponent’s good moves, you have much better odds of winning
It's interesting seeing this coming from Go, where the only point you get in zugzwang is the point where you do actually pass your turn (and unless you missed something, your opponent does too) which ends the game. The game just keeps going until neither player has any moves that don't lose them points.
@@Valkhiyazugzwang is a term we can borrow from chess to apply to many different 2 player games, and it's especially necessary in competitive connect four. But I've had success borrowing go terms to apply them to connect four too (I play on the same competitive connect 4 servers 2swap does). Knowing which forcing-move threat sequences end in sente or gote is super important, and Miai can sometimes be a useful term that simplifies connect four positions too.
Excellent video! Explaning why evens-odds works has always been one of the hardest bits about teaching the game to new players for me, but this put it in a very logical way
This reminds me of a competition on the Open Redstone Engineers Minecraft server... a few years ago we had a competition to see who could build the best connect 4 AI. They played in a tournament. Was super fun and people came up with all sorts of algorithms.
@godowskygodowsky1155 yes, but can you make a circuit in redstone that actually makes those moves? We had a time limit to make moves. So wasn't able to really do anything that crazy. Almost everyone came up with a unique idea based off some random old tech. Was amazing to watch.. Except my build. Did great!... but I made it a connect 3 by accident, so it thought it won and gave up... I lost xD
@@LordDecapo Oh, you were supposed to do it in redstone. I thought it was a coding competition. Were you allowed external tools? If so, perhaps you could use a logic synthesis tool or some other specialized compiler to convert code to circuits. It'd be nontrivial, though.
@godowskygodowsky1155 there has been several attempts at getting that kinda synthesis working. Only 1 attempts got good enough to match human redstone [that I know of] and it was abandoned.. Also only worked on small sections. The hardest part is optimizing for the mechanics of minecraft, like using comparators and signal strength. [What mine was based on]
This video is one of my favorite things - the application mathematical invariants to logic puzzles. It's such a powerful tool, and you explained it so clearly!
Brilliant video! Connect four is such a nice way to see clear application of math in board games. I never knew that either color would prefer odd or even threats, let alone that odd threats carry slightly more weight. Very logical when said though! I'm looking forward to learn more! :D
This is awesome. The content sounds exactly like the content in courses I took in college, and I have no doubt this is what it would look like if we covered connect four strategy. On top of that, the animations are very well done - informative and very pleasing to look at. Much higher quality visuals than I’d ever expect to see in a university course. Subscribed, can’t wait for the next one.
In the past few months ive been diving into the theory and concepts behind concept 4 by myself using an online solver. I've individually discovered parity (and gave it that same name when telling others about it). To me it's a relief to see there's more information about this out there than just me at my computer. Great video and I'd love to see more of this!
Very high quality video! Halfway through I scrolled down to subscribe and was shocked that it didn't have hundreds of thousands of views. I would also like to compliment you on your thumbnail + title choice as I don't see people do that very often.
Toughourly satisfied and entertained. Excited for the next one :) I will now crush all of my childhood bullies who used to torment me by beating me in Connect 4 repeatedly.
I only use CZcams for research on astrophysics and Warhammer 40,000... Yet this video appeared on my recommend, and you now have a lifelong subscriber.
Ive been waiting for a video like this for a long time. This is really the best connect four strategy video out there. Before this video, the only way to find this information was by reading the james dow Allen's book or by searching the corners of discord for nerds.
nice video, editing makes it enjoyable to watch. also i can’t tell whether the circles are slightly oblong in varying direction or if it’s a visual illusion, but it makes for a cool aesthetic
3:23 counterpoint: it's connect _four_ not connect _five_ . yellow's win is invalid. :p (this is a very interesting video! glad it crossed my feed, it's well put together and your explanations are easily understandable. definitely subscribing!)
I love that Connect 4 has theory behind just like chess! I'm so excited to see more of your videos on this game. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the control of the Zugzwang come down to the parity of the rows of the threats? If the threats are either both on even rows or both on odd rows, then yellow will win, but if one threat is on an even row and the other is on an odd row, then red will win.
For the most part, yes. But it can get complicated. For example, a threat on row 2 and row 5 by the same player exerts twice as much control over the Zugzwang as a threat on 3 and 6. We'll dig into things like that when we generalize this theory next time :)
Ok so I’ve never even thought about learning connect 4 from yt but I used to play with my dad as a kid and I’m pretty good bc most of my friends can’t beat me even once and it’s like the only skill I’ve ever had in anything and I love the game so much
This is an amazing video and got me into connect 4, can't wait for the rest of the series. Will you be showcasing openings or stick to the game theory?
Me and my friends play tic tac toe almost everyday no strategy then slowly over time we invented strats eg double win where there are 2 ways to win so its inevitable and a hole situation where you have to go somewhere bc there is no space left to go I didn't know that these had actual names I invented a strat called towering where u make towers mindlessly for the first 5-10 moves this often ends with complicated games and interweaving double wins and a square can be extremely powerful if exposed to empty spaces as it can make threes effortlessly and can easily create double wins if the opponent isnt careful and many more methods I love this video bc it gives an actually good name for what we call a hole situation (parity) thanks
Very good video! Where can I learn some basics aside from your other two videos? Also, what's sites do you play on and what site do you use in your videos?
The algorithm brought me here, and I know very little of the game’s strategy beyond what’s directly in the video, but I think I see a trick here. Say Yellow has two threats in two different columns (both empty for clarity’s sake), one on row 3 and one on row 5. Neither are good parity for yellow. But still, red is essentially out of luck. There’s four spots of free space, and since all’s left is two columns, it’s red’s go. After four turns, red will have no choice but to tread on the Danger Spaces, leading to yellow winning. Having an even amount of free space below/before two of your threats at the start of your opponents turn seems to be a key for setting up… whatever that Z word is you mentioned, I already forgot it. Maybe this is explained in previous videos, I dunno.
I just watched all your Connect 4 videos. Very interesting. I'd love to see one on openings. One piece of feedback. In the first example of the Candle Sticks Opening, you use the 0 to indicate the place that red needs to NOT play to win. In the next example, you use the 0 to show where red SHOULD block, to not lose the game. This inconsistency in the symbols used lead me to need to rewatch the examples a few times to understand. This should be an easy fix if it's something you focus on moving forward Looking forward to the next video!
Yeah, perhaps I should have notated that a bit more explicitly. 0 means tie, + means win, - means loss. So in that case, red could have won by not playing the 0 at first, but then after committing to the tying line the best thing to do is tie instead of lose.
@@twoswap ahhhhh that does make sense. Yea maybe right at the start before you start going through examples you could do a short key for people such as myself who are newer.
I didn't realize people had a community for this game, I would have expected that since the game is solved (player1 has forced win using perfect play) that it would never have any videos like this, not too into the game but interesting to see.
It's a difficult enough game to play perfectly that only a few people have achieved that or even come close. It takes a lot of practice and study of concepts like this
Hi, please consider using different colors (or patterns on the pieces) for contrast. Red and greenish yellow are difficult colors to differentiate for many colorblind viewers. Thanks
Going to try with #DC267F and #FFB000 next time, and I'll add a ring around the piece with slightly different color to hopefully provide more signal. thanks for the tip
@@twoswap Really appreciate the reply! Those colors are definitely more clear imo. Good idea with the ring as well - even something subtle like a darker value of the same color would probably work just fine as a differentiator. Looking forward to your next video :)
I figured this out on my own after playing connect 4 like 15 times a day on game pigeon with my friends, now none of them nor my family can beat me… they better not find this video
It would be great if you sourced your work. Whether you used Keith Galli's Odd Even Strategy video or whether you followed Victor Allis's solution to connect 4, papers, etc.
I only intend to cover stuff thats common knowledge as well as my own original discoveries. Those who want to read victor allis can do just that :3 Although I will talk about claimeven. I'll be sure to mention the paper in which the term was coined.
“You can always deterministically know the result of the game once you reach the endgame.” Ah, but consider, I’m stupid and miss obvious threats in Connect 4
Hey mate. Like naughts and crosses, connect 4 is a solved game. Once you learn perfect strategy, you cannot lose as the first player. A good player will not provide easy opportunities to win before the final column.
@@FRAXMET As someone with hundreds of hours in the game, 2swap is absolutely right. Maybe not "longer than a lifetime," but many years of committed practice and study, for sure.
There are ranked servers online. None of them use ELO, although I don't see a technical reason why you couldn't. You would probably want to modify it slightly to account for player 1 advantage, but it's definitely possible.
@@twoswap How would an anti-cheat for connect 4 work? I feel like it would be MUCH more difficult to detect engine moves in connect four compared to chess
In an automated fashion, yeah that would be very hard. Human experts can typically spot a cheater though. During the game, way more entropy is contributed by player 2 than player 1 since p1 is much more often forced, so usually the giveaway is in games where the cheater plays as p2. Engines usually don't know how to play in a creative and confusing fashion to throw player 1 off, but instead just try to lose as late as possible. However these lines are few in number and usually pretty simple to defend against. So the typical cheater will play perfectly against complex openings as player 1, but play naive openings as player 2, and still lose (always on row 5.)
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 *🧠 Understanding major threats in Connect 4 is crucial for winning, and today's focus is on leveraging threats effectively.* 00:57 *🔄 Parity, referring to even-ness or odd-ness of a number, plays a key role in analyzing Connect 4 positions, as players alternate turns in a total of 42 moves.* 01:53 *🏆 The position of threats matters; a player having threats on rows corresponding to their parity gives a significant advantage.* 04:03 *🤝 Threats on rows with opposite parity can undercut each other, potentially leading to a tie, showcasing the importance of threat placement.* 05:27 *⚠️ Careful consideration of threat placement is crucial during the game's construction, as demonstrated in the Candlesticks opening example.* 06:49 *🤔 Players are favored when threats align with their favored parity rows, but zugzwang situations can arise, forcing suboptimal moves.* 08:39 *🔄 Understanding zugzwang is vital; controlling zugzwang can give a player a strategic advantage in Connect 4.* 10:28 *🧩 In Connect 4, players in zugzwang gain an advantage by having odd row threats, which are slightly stronger than even row threats.* 10:54 *🤯 Knowing the open threats and their row parities allows deterministic prediction of the game's result without needing additional information.* Made with HARPA AI
The views plummeted when I did lol I always thought youtubers were exaggerating when they said the algorithm works in mysterious ways. These past few days have been a bit of a culture shock haha
@@twoswap That is such a shame, but i get that people don't like hopping on the "middle" of a thing, so it makes sense that if they see a video that its like part 3 of a series that they would not open it :(
Good... no. There's papergames and boardgames.io, but they are both pretty buggy with bad UI. Ei8ghts sorta works and has cash prize tournaments now and then, but there is no playerbase and you have to sign up for some crypto wallet nonsense to get an account. FlyOrDie is ugly and hard to use but that's where the expert players hang out. Maybe I'll just make a server which doesn't suck... someday
It's crazy that I paused to think "wait, doesn't that mean red wins in games where they have row 1/3/5 threats and yellow wins with row 2/4/6 threats" right before you went and said it
Yes, but that's not strictly a result of parity mechanics. As an example, boards with a height of 6 and width of 9 favor yellow, even though the parity of the height and width match the standard board.
@@notthat1901 The person who told me that was my college English professor. Also literally any dictionary. Yes, "they" is becoming more accepted as a generalized pronoun when the gender is unknown, but "he" is more widely-accepted and has been for centuries.
@@sorin_markov I don’t think he is more widely accepted and probably hasn’t been for the past decade or two. They isn’t used just when the gender is unknown, it’s used when the gender is unspecified. When talking about an unspecified “someone”, I don’t see any reason to say he over they. Languages change.
@@notthat1901 Well regardless of what you think, the generic "he" has been used as a general pronoun for a very long time and is still accepted by grammaticians. Unknown gender and unspecified gender mean the same thing in this context. And on a broader point, this is just a really argumentative thing to bring up in a comment. I trust that you're knowledgable enough to already know these basic rules of grammar, so you're just looking to start a fight over nothing.
a zugzwang is something i learned about in chess, but seeing it applied to similar turn-based games is really eye-opening. by eliminating all of your opponent’s good moves, you have much better odds of winning
U do it too in tic tac toe.
It's interesting seeing this coming from Go, where the only point you get in zugzwang is the point where you do actually pass your turn (and unless you missed something, your opponent does too) which ends the game. The game just keeps going until neither player has any moves that don't lose them points.
@@Valkhiyazugzwang is a term we can borrow from chess to apply to many different 2 player games, and it's especially necessary in competitive connect four. But I've had success borrowing go terms to apply them to connect four too (I play on the same competitive connect 4 servers 2swap does). Knowing which forcing-move threat sequences end in sente or gote is super important, and Miai can sometimes be a useful term that simplifies connect four positions too.
@@telph3223yoooo telph what’s up. I guess I dox myself by replying on this account lol maybe you don’t know who I am
@@levigrant4458 wadi?
Should submit this to SoME if it’s not already. No crazy deep math, but mathematical insights behind such a classic game are deserving of it!
Excellent video! Explaning why evens-odds works has always been one of the hardest bits about teaching the game to new players for me, but this put it in a very logical way
I’m learning connect 4 the biblical way before even knowing how to play. Great stuff!!
TIL there are openings to connect 4, amazing video all in all
This reminds me of a competition on the Open Redstone Engineers Minecraft server... a few years ago we had a competition to see who could build the best connect 4 AI. They played in a tournament. Was super fun and people came up with all sorts of algorithms.
Isn't the game solved, though? You could make a bot that plays the perfect strategy, and that always wins with red.
@godowskygodowsky1155 yes, but can you make a circuit in redstone that actually makes those moves? We had a time limit to make moves. So wasn't able to really do anything that crazy. Almost everyone came up with a unique idea based off some random old tech. Was amazing to watch..
Except my build. Did great!... but I made it a connect 3 by accident, so it thought it won and gave up... I lost xD
@@LordDecapo Oh, you were supposed to do it in redstone. I thought it was a coding competition.
Were you allowed external tools? If so, perhaps you could use a logic synthesis tool or some other specialized compiler to convert code to circuits. It'd be nontrivial, though.
@godowskygodowsky1155 there has been several attempts at getting that kinda synthesis working. Only 1 attempts got good enough to match human redstone [that I know of] and it was abandoned..
Also only worked on small sections.
The hardest part is optimizing for the mechanics of minecraft, like using comparators and signal strength. [What mine was based on]
beautiful video, you're getting my combinatorial game theory brain working real good
This video is one of my favorite things - the application mathematical invariants to logic puzzles. It's such a powerful tool, and you explained it so clearly!
Brilliant video! Connect four is such a nice way to see clear application of math in board games. I never knew that either color would prefer odd or even threats, let alone that odd threats carry slightly more weight. Very logical when said though! I'm looking forward to learn more! :D
Good video. The parity rules can be tricky to explain, but this framed the basics of them in a very intuitive and concise way.
I have never played Connect 4, I have never shown interest in Connect 4. Even then, this video was amazing. Can't wait for more.
This is awesome. The content sounds exactly like the content in courses I took in college, and I have no doubt this is what it would look like if we covered connect four strategy.
On top of that, the animations are very well done - informative and very pleasing to look at. Much higher quality visuals than I’d ever expect to see in a university course.
Subscribed, can’t wait for the next one.
I love this kind of strategic theory crafting. Very well articulated and easy to understand. Great video!
In the past few months ive been diving into the theory and concepts behind concept 4 by myself using an online solver. I've individually discovered parity (and gave it that same name when telling others about it).
To me it's a relief to see there's more information about this out there than just me at my computer. Great video and I'd love to see more of this!
Feel free to join the community! We have lots of people who know a lot about the game and I'm sure could show you some things
@@sorin_markov no but like where--
also ive memorized basically all the relevant theory and feel like theres not much more to do
Nice video. I especially liked when you talked about what two odd threats can do for yellow
Wow, very well explained. Surprised this channel hasn't attracted more attention yet.
Very high quality video! Halfway through I scrolled down to subscribe and was shocked that it didn't have hundreds of thousands of views. I would also like to compliment you on your thumbnail + title choice as I don't see people do that very often.
Thanks!
Toughourly satisfied and entertained. Excited for the next one :)
I will now crush all of my childhood bullies who used to torment me by beating me in Connect 4 repeatedly.
Use this weapon with caution friend. We learn to fight so that we don't have to.
Hope i see this channel grow, this is a great video of quality alike to 3 blue one brown or Veritasium
I only use CZcams for research on astrophysics and Warhammer 40,000... Yet this video appeared on my recommend, and you now have a lifelong subscriber.
The odd even end game strategies are something I will have to work on to continue to crush the children I play against.
best connect 4 videos on youtube, can't wait for more :]
Ive been waiting for a video like this for a long time. This is really the best connect four strategy video out there.
Before this video, the only way to find this information was by reading the james dow Allen's book or by searching the corners of discord for nerds.
Never knew I’d see such an interesting video about connect 4!
Thank you very much for this concise explanation.
Very cool, I had no idea Connect 4 had such interesting strategies!
Incredible video. Only a matter of time until you have 1 million subscribers
These are just spectacular.
very helpful and informative!
I don’t even remember when is the last time I played connect 4 but when I saw this my monkey brain instantly went full focus
nice video, editing makes it enjoyable to watch. also i can’t tell whether the circles are slightly oblong in varying direction or if it’s a visual illusion, but it makes for a cool aesthetic
Hm, they should be circular circles!
needed this video back when I was losing to my gf in connect 4. Now she's my ex but at least I'll never lose in connect 4 again.
You snagged the sub of a chess player - can't wait for the next video!
excited for more
3:23 counterpoint: it's connect _four_ not connect _five_ . yellow's win is invalid. :p
(this is a very interesting video! glad it crossed my feed, it's well put together and your explanations are easily understandable. definitely subscribing!)
I love that Connect 4 has theory behind just like chess! I'm so excited to see more of your videos on this game.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the control of the Zugzwang come down to the parity of the rows of the threats? If the threats are either both on even rows or both on odd rows, then yellow will win, but if one threat is on an even row and the other is on an odd row, then red will win.
For the most part, yes. But it can get complicated. For example, a threat on row 2 and row 5 by the same player exerts twice as much control over the Zugzwang as a threat on 3 and 6. We'll dig into things like that when we generalize this theory next time :)
Ok so I’ve never even thought about learning connect 4 from yt but I used to play with my dad as a kid and I’m pretty good bc most of my friends can’t beat me even once and it’s like the only skill I’ve ever had in anything and I love the game so much
Keep the videos comming!! 👍
More of these, quick!!
This is an amazing video and got me into connect 4, can't wait for the rest of the series. Will you be showcasing openings or stick to the game theory?
I will touch on everything :)
I will watch the next video. 👌
Me and my friends play tic tac toe almost everyday no strategy then slowly over time we invented strats eg double win where there are 2 ways to win so its inevitable and a hole situation where you have to go somewhere bc there is no space left to go I didn't know that these had actual names I invented a strat called towering where u make towers mindlessly for the first 5-10 moves this often ends with complicated games and interweaving double wins and a square can be extremely powerful if exposed to empty spaces as it can make threes effortlessly and can easily create double wins if the opponent isnt careful and many more methods I love this video bc it gives an actually good name for what we call a hole situation (parity) thanks
Tic tac toe? Do you mean connect 4?
I meant connect 4 lol I vividly remember making sure I didn't type tic tac toe but I guess just thinking about it made me do it unconsciously
this is hype
YOOO AMAZING VIDEO
Very good video! Where can I learn some basics aside from your other two videos? Also, what's sites do you play on and what site do you use in your videos?
I usually only play in discord servers with other semi-serious players and on flyordie here and there
oh this is neat
The algorithm brought me here, and I know very little of the game’s strategy beyond what’s directly in the video, but I think I see a trick here. Say Yellow has two threats in two different columns (both empty for clarity’s sake), one on row 3 and one on row 5. Neither are good parity for yellow. But still, red is essentially out of luck. There’s four spots of free space, and since all’s left is two columns, it’s red’s go. After four turns, red will have no choice but to tread on the Danger Spaces, leading to yellow winning. Having an even amount of free space below/before two of your threats at the start of your opponents turn seems to be a key for setting up… whatever that Z word is you mentioned, I already forgot it. Maybe this is explained in previous videos, I dunno.
Spot on! This is covered in the next video.
Will there be more of these videos? I'd love to see a video go more in depth into the common openings.
Yes!
I just watched all your Connect 4 videos. Very interesting. I'd love to see one on openings.
One piece of feedback. In the first example of the Candle Sticks Opening, you use the 0 to indicate the place that red needs to NOT play to win. In the next example, you use the 0 to show where red SHOULD block, to not lose the game. This inconsistency in the symbols used lead me to need to rewatch the examples a few times to understand. This should be an easy fix if it's something you focus on moving forward
Looking forward to the next video!
Yeah, perhaps I should have notated that a bit more explicitly. 0 means tie, + means win, - means loss. So in that case, red could have won by not playing the 0 at first, but then after committing to the tying line the best thing to do is tie instead of lose.
@@twoswap ahhhhh that does make sense. Yea maybe right at the start before you start going through examples you could do a short key for people such as myself who are newer.
Alex the GOAT
I didn't realize people had a community for this game, I would have expected that since the game is solved (player1 has forced win using perfect play) that it would never have any videos like this, not too into the game but interesting to see.
It's a difficult enough game to play perfectly that only a few people have achieved that or even come close. It takes a lot of practice and study of concepts like this
As a cuber i thought theres gonna be very special impossible looking cases
Its halloween, and these 3 words will spook you out. MiNorr thREAaathhSSs!!! OpENiNgsSSSs!!1! TiMee ConTTrrroLlll!!!1
awesome video, even considering Connect 4 is a solved game
Hi, please consider using different colors (or patterns on the pieces) for contrast. Red and greenish yellow are difficult colors to differentiate for many colorblind viewers. Thanks
Going to try with #DC267F and #FFB000 next time, and I'll add a ring around the piece with slightly different color to hopefully provide more signal. thanks for the tip
@@twoswap Really appreciate the reply! Those colors are definitely more clear imo. Good idea with the ring as well - even something subtle like a darker value of the same color would probably work just fine as a differentiator. Looking forward to your next video :)
Hey thanks for the video. do you have any recommendations for online multiplayer connect 4 sites?
Ill start putting links in the descriptions
cool
tysm for this video im learning connect 4 theory so i can beat my friend
This feels like a SoME video, you should consider it if its not!
I figured this out on my own after playing connect 4 like 15 times a day on game pigeon with my friends, now none of them nor my family can beat me… they better not find this video
Its almost 1am and I'm watching scientific connect four
It would be great if you sourced your work. Whether you used Keith Galli's Odd Even Strategy video or whether you followed Victor Allis's solution to connect 4, papers, etc.
I only intend to cover stuff thats common knowledge as well as my own original discoveries. Those who want to read victor allis can do just that :3
Although I will talk about claimeven. I'll be sure to mention the paper in which the term was coined.
“You can always deterministically know the result of the game once you reach the endgame.”
Ah, but consider, I’m stupid and miss obvious threats in Connect 4
done
Hey mate. Like naughts and crosses, connect 4 is a solved game. Once you learn perfect strategy, you cannot lose as the first player. A good player will not provide easy opportunities to win before the final column.
"Learning perfect strategy" takes perhaps longer than a lifetime. You can't just memorize an entire weak solution as red, it is simply too large.
@@twoswapfalse
@@FRAXMET As someone with hundreds of hours in the game, 2swap is absolutely right. Maybe not "longer than a lifetime," but many years of committed practice and study, for sure.
Could ranked connect 4 (with an elo system, for example) ever be possible? Because it is theoretically solved
There are ranked servers online. None of them use ELO, although I don't see a technical reason why you couldn't. You would probably want to modify it slightly to account for player 1 advantage, but it's definitely possible.
@@twoswap How would an anti-cheat for connect 4 work? I feel like it would be MUCH more difficult to detect engine moves in connect four compared to chess
In an automated fashion, yeah that would be very hard. Human experts can typically spot a cheater though. During the game, way more entropy is contributed by player 2 than player 1 since p1 is much more often forced, so usually the giveaway is in games where the cheater plays as p2. Engines usually don't know how to play in a creative and confusing fashion to throw player 1 off, but instead just try to lose as late as possible. However these lines are few in number and usually pretty simple to defend against. So the typical cheater will play perfectly against complex openings as player 1, but play naive openings as player 2, and still lose (always on row 5.)
it seems like a yellow odd threat can neutralize a red odd threat, is this correct?
For the most part. The entire next video is dedicated to the subtleties of this property.
@@twoswap awesome! looking forward to it!
What's the best place to play connect 4 multiplayer?
FlyOrDie once you are already at least intermediate. Any random site like papergames is sufficient to get familiar with the basics.
U make me scared with those words lol
As someone who grew up with Connect Four in the 80s, yellow triggers me. Why'd they change it from black?
Well, im glad they did for the sake of my pretty black background 😅
i would love this video but being colorblind made it very difficult to understand
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:00 *🧠 Understanding major threats in Connect 4 is crucial for winning, and today's focus is on leveraging threats effectively.*
00:57 *🔄 Parity, referring to even-ness or odd-ness of a number, plays a key role in analyzing Connect 4 positions, as players alternate turns in a total of 42 moves.*
01:53 *🏆 The position of threats matters; a player having threats on rows corresponding to their parity gives a significant advantage.*
04:03 *🤝 Threats on rows with opposite parity can undercut each other, potentially leading to a tie, showcasing the importance of threat placement.*
05:27 *⚠️ Careful consideration of threat placement is crucial during the game's construction, as demonstrated in the Candlesticks opening example.*
06:49 *🤔 Players are favored when threats align with their favored parity rows, but zugzwang situations can arise, forcing suboptimal moves.*
08:39 *🔄 Understanding zugzwang is vital; controlling zugzwang can give a player a strategic advantage in Connect 4.*
10:28 *🧩 In Connect 4, players in zugzwang gain an advantage by having odd row threats, which are slightly stronger than even row threats.*
10:54 *🤯 Knowing the open threats and their row parities allows deterministic prediction of the game's result without needing additional information.*
Made with HARPA AI
Cool video but am I crazy or is that green and not yellow, am I colour blind
Incredible videos, you should add a number to the title so it's easier to identify them
I think I will!
@@twoswap Thank you for that and for the videos!!!
The views plummeted when I did lol
I always thought youtubers were exaggerating when they said the algorithm works in mysterious ways. These past few days have been a bit of a culture shock haha
@@twoswap That is such a shame, but i get that people don't like hopping on the "middle" of a thing, so it makes sense that if they see a video that its like part 3 of a series that they would not open it :(
@@Nutral1234 I think I'll just put it in a playlist so the ordering is clear
do you know any good websites to play connect four?
Good... no.
There's papergames and boardgames.io, but they are both pretty buggy with bad UI. Ei8ghts sorta works and has cash prize tournaments now and then, but there is no playerbase and you have to sign up for some crypto wallet nonsense to get an account. FlyOrDie is ugly and hard to use but that's where the expert players hang out.
Maybe I'll just make a server which doesn't suck... someday
@@twoswap I would hope there's already a server which doesn't suck, at least on Discord 👀
@@sorin_markov Hehe you are more than welcome to post it and i'll pin
@@twoswap I tried to when replying to someone else earlier, but I think it got auto-deleted because of the link. I'll try again
Just admit it. Odd numbers don't exist. Just an odd collection of things known by what they haven't and aren't.
6321 is a pretty odd number
It's crazy that I paused to think "wait, doesn't that mean red wins in games where they have row 1/3/5 threats and yellow wins with row 2/4/6 threats" right before you went and said it
This is a great video and will help me achieve more wins in the connect 4 server. Thanks, 2swap.
Is connect 4 a drawn game?
Player 1 wins under optimal play!
You should add text that says whose turn it is
Zugzwangometer coming soon!
Could use some light background music
In the works for next time!
So red has advantage?
Yes, but that's not strictly a result of parity mechanics. As an example, boards with a height of 6 and width of 9 favor yellow, even though the parity of the height and width match the standard board.
@@twoswap Now I wanna know about generalizing Connect 4 Strategies to arbitrary X by Y board sizes now!
We will touch on that next time :)
@@twoswap Noted!
Tip: Don't open the subtitles at the start of the video
I'm sorry what? Red first? Is this just some crazy thing I've never heard of, or have I been playing wrongly with yellow first all my life?
👀
Is this brain david Gilbert? Voice is dead on
🙂 *promosm*
🙃 'Promosm'
Why do you say "he"? As if all connect 4 players are men
Because the generalized pronoun in English is "he"
@@sorin_markov I don’t know who told you that, but they were wrong (see what I did there?)
@@notthat1901 The person who told me that was my college English professor. Also literally any dictionary. Yes, "they" is becoming more accepted as a generalized pronoun when the gender is unknown, but "he" is more widely-accepted and has been for centuries.
@@sorin_markov I don’t think he is more widely accepted and probably hasn’t been for the past decade or two. They isn’t used just when the gender is unknown, it’s used when the gender is unspecified. When talking about an unspecified “someone”, I don’t see any reason to say he over they. Languages change.
@@notthat1901 Well regardless of what you think, the generic "he" has been used as a general pronoun for a very long time and is still accepted by grammaticians. Unknown gender and unspecified gender mean the same thing in this context.
And on a broader point, this is just a really argumentative thing to bring up in a comment. I trust that you're knowledgable enough to already know these basic rules of grammar, so you're just looking to start a fight over nothing.