Implementing Minimax Algorithm for Tic Tac Toe
Tic-tac-toe is a classic two-player board game and one of the most popular games in the world. To win the game, a player must position three of their tokens in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Although this is a simple game, it is perfect for a gamification project in which you can use artificial intelligence. One way to apply AI in this game is to use a Minimax algorithm.
To implement a Minimax algorithm it’s essential to understand the rules of the game. The board of the tic-tac-toe game consists of a 3 x 3 square board, with two players, "X" and "O" placing tokens on the board in turn. The first player who achieves a row of three tokens from their corresponding sign wins the game.
Create the tic-tac-toe board. The board can be implemented as a two-dimensional array.
Next, generate the game tree. The game tree is a data structure with nodes and edges. It details the state of the game at each turn, including the potential moves and their respective results.
After the game tree is generated, create the evaluation function. This function will help the computer decide which move to make. The evaluation function works by assigning a value to each of the possible game states, either good or bad — higher or lower, depending on the situation.
- Finally, implement the minimax algorithm. The minimax algorithm is an AI-based algorithm used to calculate the best possible move in a two-player game. It works by assigning values to each move and predicting the best move in each turn.