title: Gomoku array-based AI-algorithm?
body: <p>Way way back (think 20+ years) I encountered a Gomoku game source code in a magazine that I typed in for my computer and had a lot of fun with.</p>
  
  <p>The game was difficult to win against, but the core algorithm for the computer AI was really simply and didn't account for a lot of code. I wonder if anyone knows this algorithm and has some links to some source or theory about it.</p>
  
  <p>The things I remember was that it basically allocated an array that covered the entire board. Then, whenever I, or it, placed a piece, it would add a number of weights to all locations on the board that the piece would possibly impact.</p>
  
  <p>For instance (note that the weights are definitely wrong as I don't remember those):</p>
  
  <pre><code>1   1   1
   2  2  2
    3 3 3
     444
  1234X4321
    3 3 3
   2  2  2
  1   1   1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Then it simply scanned the array for an open location with the lowest or highest value.</p>
  
  <p>Things I'm fuzzy on:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Perhaps it had two arrays, one for me and one for itself and there was a min/max weighting?</li>
  <li>There might've been more to the algorithm, but at its core it was basically an array and weighted numbers</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Does this ring a bell with anyone at all? Anyone got anything that would help?</p>