There are no shortcuts to being good at this game. Download Mustrum and start learning the openings. Some general advice: - If you are serious about getting better at this, keep a record of every game you play. Write the moves down on a piece of paper and go over them afterwards with Mustrum to see where you made mistakes. Try to determine why it was a mistake. - For non-forced lines (a sequence of moves), decide how you will respond to the line, and then play it consistently. Don't keep changing your responses. Choose one and stick to it until you have mastered it. - Red wins in odd rows, blue wins in even rows. This is a HUGE simplification of the rules that govern who wins a game a connect 4, but is good enough for now. I might go into more detail later. Going First: 1. Until you are REALLY good, always start in the middle column. Once you are unbeatable starting in the middle column, and know a lot of good antis playing as blue, then you can learn how to win with other opening moves. 2. Learn the central column openings. This is where your opponent plays on top of you as their first move. This is the most common response by lower-rated players when they are playing with blue. Here is the breakdown (300 games against low rated players): 44 = 60.3% 43 or 45 = 33.4% 42 or 46 = 3.0% 41 or 47 = 3.3% As you can see, central column openings are by far the most common, and therefore should be learned first and given the most time for study. The lines you will see the most begin with: 44444435 (quite easy to learn) 44444432 (can be very tricky) 4443 444443 (can be quite tricky) 444441 444442 (not as popular as the others, probably because it's one of the easier lines to learn) Obviously these lines go a lot deeper, but I'm not going to go through all the possible variations here. You have to put in the time to determine how you would like to respond to these antis and then spend the time memorizing the various lines that can result. 3. Learn the first-row openings A LOT of beginners get this completely wrong. If your opponent plays beside you on their first move i.e. 43 (or 45) you must play 6 or 7 (1 or 2 if it starts 45). To keep things simple I'm going to assume your opponent has played to the left of you (43). I have kept a record of every game I've played, and when I play for a first row opening as blue, only 12.6% of the time a low-rated player will play one of the 2 winning moves. Here's the breakdown (250 games against low rated players, in brackets is the result for RED assuming perfect play for both sides): 431 = 0.4% (LOSS) 432 = 1.6% (LOSS) 433 = 24.8 (DRAW) 434 = 50.8% (DRAW) 435 = 9.4% (LOSS) 436 = 9.8% (WIN) 437 = 2.8% (WIN) I recommend that a beginner starts by learning 436 (and 452) first. The lines that result from this 3-move opening are significantly easier to memorize than the lines resulting from 437 (and 451). In fact, you can get away with never learning 437. The only reason you would learn it is if you want to make it harder for your opponent to learn from you and mimic your correct moves when they play against you as red. However this only becomes an advantage in long matches (10+ games). For internet play it isn't that important, but it would help you in long matches in real life. Here is the breakdown of responses after the moves 436 (100 games against low-rated opponents): 4361 = 0.0% 4362 = 1.0% 4363 = 8.8% 4364 = 27.5% 4365 = 52.0% 4366 = 8.8% 4367 = 2.0% Use these statistics to determine how much time to spend on each variation. All of these lines are obviously still winning for red, however he can easily lose his advantage on the next move if he isn't very careful. 4366 leads to the most forced games, and therefore it could be argued that these are the hardest to learn (and thus should be used the most often when playing first row openings as blue). That's it for now. I will keep going with this if I get enough of a response. Good luck.
Guide To Connect 4
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Four in a Row
Guide To Connect 4
Eh? Looks like many players will start using Mustrum but all that means is that I get to break all of the mustrum users now woot :D
szek98 you made a good and at same time bad introducting. The reds win in the odds rows and etc. But your stats aren't correct. Your chances are almost similar start by start. 1st thing. The players must understand the game. The players must not memorize. If you memorize you have 60% chances to lose. The breaker only need to make a different move to let you confused and... you know the end. 2nd thing. Mustrum isn't a good prog to practice. Even the Via. These progs use bad antis to break the starter. And you have a high risk to learn another mistakes with Mustrum. So, Mustrum isn't a trustable prog!! The begginers should practice. The begginers should miss. And the begginers should understand the styles. About your probabilites tables. The dificulty is almost similar the start by start. So, in my opinion, your values or percentages aren't correct. For me, you have more chances to win with a 4-5-1 or even with a 4-7-1 than a 4-4-4. There are some styles with many variations. In other words, you can do many different moves in some styles. For exemple 4-5-2-2. So, if you chose or if the breaker "makes" you use a variation that you don'tknow, probably you'll lose. This is somthing harder and complicated for the begginers. There are some styles the blues have the advantage, but they lose during the end of the game.
Hello I liked your post, is quite interesting ;) . Parasita is my friend, and i think you and he are both correct. This is my explanation ;) 1.- mustrum like para said is not very trustable, make mistakes, but for begginer is enough, and is very easy to get :) . 2.- And i agree with parasita with the begginers have to lose and learn from mistakes, and try to understand the game, but i think i got your point, when you said is important to keep a record of your games, that will absolutely help begginers to improve faster. but there's a risk in that, begginers may want to stopped playing, because will be to difficult for them. So my proposal is . Use the analize mode of vianiato. this tell you exactly what move is correct, what is wrong, and which one is draw move, that makes a completely difference, to be able to understand the game. analize mode of vianiato, in person vs person. more--> options--solve all then little squares appears down of the columns which show the correct or incorrect moves.. white circle in rectangle means= correct move. red circle in rectangle means = wrong move yellow circle in rectangle means= draw move. So one you get the program(vianiato) and you setted up to this analize mode, the rest is just practice and practice and practice and practice ,and so on :P and with enough pacience you wil be expert soon ;)
It seems as though you guys misunderstood a few parts of my post... Firstly, the percentages are not winning percentages, but how often your opponents PLAY THOSE LINES. I put them in to show you what to expect when you play weak players and therefore which lines you should spend more time studying. Secondly, I did not say to mimic Mustrum's moves. I said to use Mustrum to analyze games that you've played to find mistakes and also to use it to find out what the candidate moves are after specific move sequences (lines) and then determine yourself how you'd like to proceed in those lines, for example: You are playing red and the game begins 436675 and it is your turn. Using Mustrum to analyze you will see that either 3 or 5 retains your winning advantage. Now it is up to the individual player to decide how he'd like to proceed from here. This is how I decide: I pick the move where I'm less likely to make a mistake on my next move if I forget my 'preferred move'. Following on from my previous example, how would I decide between 3 and 5? 1. Play 3 2. Play each of your opponents 7 possible moves and then analyze all 7 resulting positions to see how many winning moves you have on your next turn. So I would set up 43667531 in Mustrum. Then I would analyze the position and see that I have 4 winning moves (1,3,5 and 7). Then I would set up 43667532 and see that I have 3 winning moves (3,5 and 7) etc until you have analyzed 43667537 and added up all the winning moves you have after all the possible moves by blue. Then you repeat the same process for 4366755x (where x is 1...7) You should get: 4366753x = 12 4366755x = 21 Therefore based on this criteria you would choose the 4366755 line over the 4366753 line AS YOU ARE LESS LIKELY TO MAKE A MISTAKE ON YOUR NEXT MOVE and you would try to play this move everytime the situation arises in a match so that your play remains as consistent as possible and you memorize the lines quicker than if you kept playing different (albeit winning) moves everytime that line appeared in a match. There are other criteria that you can use to discriminate between different winning (or drawing) moves i.e. how QUICKLY a move wins (on average), how RARE a move is, the move that results in you being able to almost always play in the same column on your next move regardless of where your opponent plays (i.e. if I play 2 here, I can play 4 on my next move after 6 of the possible 7 moves my opponent has to choose from on his next move) and finally, choosing forcing moves (checks, threats) or moves that are ikely to lead to forcing moves in the future. Good luck
Decent guide!
I have three questions and something I wanna affix.
Question(1): Could you, please, define "low rated"? Q(2): Did you face new opponents each game or play the same opponents several turns? Q(3): Why focus more on common "noob" variations?
Practise intensively
In my view, the key to playing Connect Four at a very high level is the ability to read ahead and visualize what the board will look like after several moves. In fact, at the highest levels of play, nearly all of the “thinking” taking place is visual. For example, scans of top Reversi-, Chess- and Shogi (Japanese Chess) players showed activity concentrated in the vision center of the brains. The first time that I was able to really “see” what the board would look like was during a tournament at Blip in early 2006. In the last game, I was considering a move when I, quite literally, saw a diagonal line of white pieces emerge from nowhere. It looked as real to me as if the game was finished, but when we, in fact, were still in the early stages of the game. It was not until many months later that I was able to visualize this well on a consistent basis. Today, when I am looking at a C4 board it seems to come alive, as though I was watching a movie, and it is so much fun.
Ah, I though that you did see the percentages anywhere. And the numbers were strange! Second, I'm just advising you the issue you can have learning with progs. If you learn with a prog your opponent has an high chance to defeat you. If you want to fix some moves, the progs can learn you wrong moves. So you can fix a a mistake with another mistake. Forgetting the numbers, you must know why do you need to make some move. If you don't understand it, if I do anything different, you'll probably lose. Usually, for you win, sometimes you need 2 or 3 odds to win. Or you need an odd and a pair to win. In my opinion, you must follow this logic every time. That's all you need to understand this game. After, as Mjölke said, you must the preview of the match during the beginning of the game.
Bonsoir, dans votre 1er message vous dîtes ceci " Voici la répartition (250 matchs contre bas les joueurs classés, entre parenthèses est le résultat d'ROUGE en supposant jeu parfait pour les deux côtés): 431 = 0.4% (LOSS) 432 = 1.6% (LOSS) 433 = 24.8 (DRAW) 434 = 50.8% (DRAW) 435 = 9.4% (LOSS) 436 = 9.8% (WIN) 437 = 2.8% (WIN)" Vous faite entièrement erreur ! car si deux bons joueurs (parfait) s'affronte ( comme vous le dîtes ) 431 = 100% win 432 = 100% win 433 = 100% draw 434 = 100% draw 435 = 100% lose 436 = 100% win 437 = 100% win Maintenant si tu joues un très bon joueurs en bleu et un joueur moyen en rouge, là il peut y avoir des break et des draw ( quand le rouge doit gagner ! ) car si vous me dites que si deux très bons joueurs (parfait) s'affrontent et qu'il y a 0.00000001% de perte sur un style gagnant, ce n'est plus un joueur parfait ^^ et pour le " 434 = 50.8% ( draw ) " mdrrr . ce n'est plus des très joueur, ce sont des noobs ^^ car si il y a 50.8% de draw, c'es à dire qu'il y a 49.2% de perte ou de victoire ! un très bon"" joueur en rouge qui perd dans ce style là ... ( sans commentaire ) et un ""très bon" joueur en bleu qui perd dans ce style là ( sans commentaire aussi lool ) Quand on parle de "parfait" on peut qu'employer le pourcentage 100%! retiens bien que si se sont des joueurs PARFAIT, si c'est un style GAGNANT , le joueur rouge gagne à 100% ! si c'est un style perdant , le bleu gagne à 100% et si c'est un style draw, les deux joueurs feront draw à 100% ! il ne peut pas avoir de 50%, 0.00000001...% ou 99.99999...% ! Pour être un bon joueur, il ne suffit pas seulement de savoir les stratégies, mais aussi de savoir anticiper. Et pour ça il faut savoir le système " paire/impaire " dans sa globalité ! Bon jeu à tous TRADUCTION : Good evening, in your first message you say "Here's the breakdown (250 games against lower ranked players in parentheses is the result of RED assuming perfect game for both sides): 431 = 0.4% (LOSS) 432 = 1.6% (LOSS) 433 = 8.24 (DRAW) 434 = 50.8% (DRAW) 435 = 9.4% (LOSS) 436 = 9.8% (WIN) 437 = 2.8% (WIN) " You made entirely wrong! because if two good players (perfect) will compete (as you say) 431 = 100% win 432 = 100% win 433 = 100% draw 434 = 100% draw 435 = 100% lose 436 = 100% win 437 = 100% win Now if you play very good players in blue and an average player in red, there may be some break and draw (when the red has to win!) because if you tell me that if two very good players (perfect) and there are competing 0.00000001% loss on a winning style, this is not a perfect player ^ ^ and for "434 = 50.8% (draw)" mdrrr. it is no longer the playful, they are noobs ^ ^ because if there is 50.8% of draw, c'es to say that there are 49.2% of loss or victory! a very good "" Red player who loses in this style ... (No comment) and a "" very good "player in blue who lost in this style (also without comment lool) When we talk about" perfect "can be that using the percentage 100%! remember that if players were perfect, so it's a winning style, the red player wins 100%! if it's a loser style, blue and win 100% if it is a style draw, both players will draw 100%! He can not have 50%, 0.00000001% or 99.99999...%! To be a good player, it is not enough only to know the strategies, but also anticipation. And for that we must know the system "odd / pair" in its entirety! Have fun with it
Ok, please listen, I won't be explaining again: THE PERCENTAGES ARE NOT MY WINNING PERCENTAGES! THE PERCENTAGES ARE HOW OFTEN A LOW RATED OPPONENT WILL PLAY THAT LINE!!! 431 = 0.4% i.e when you are playing blue and the first 2 moves are '43', then against a low rated player, you will face '1' as the next move 0.4% of the time. 432 = 1.6% 433 = 24.8 434 = 50.8% 435 = 9.4% 436 = 9.8% 437 = 2.8% Therefore, if you play '43' as blue, over half of the time you will face '434' so it makes sense that you would spend half of your time studying and memorizing the resulting lines! Very simple concept..
bonjour, c'est plus clair lool . Mais si un bon joueur joue un "faible" joueur. Il gagnera facilement. Pas besoin de travailler des techniques. Il suffit juste de savoir anticiper. Et pour " Par conséquent, si vous jouez '43 'comme le bleu, plus de la moitié du temps vous devrez faire face '434' il est donc logique que vous passez la moitié de votre temps à étudier et mémoriser les lignes résultant! Concept très simple .. " Pour ma part ce n'est pas logique, Car 434 il n'y a pas 36 solutions, en 5 minutes tu as appris toute les contres possibles, de plus que si tu joues contre un "bas joueurs" il ne sait pas anticiper, donc toute les chances sont de votre côté. Contre les "faible joueurs" je gagne 100% de mes matchs en 434. et il y a toujours les 3 même style qui revient ( donc si tu passes 50% de ton temps à apprendre 3 style, ce n'est pas gagner pour la suite ) Et de plus si tu joues contre un "bas joueurs" tu ne peux pas jouer du par coeur. Car les "bas joueurs" jouent au pif. Il suffit juste de savoir anticiper. Je t'invite à jouer, si tu le veux ! Bon courage et Bon jeu à tous ! TRADUCTION : hello, it's clearer lool. But if a good player has a "weak" player. He will win easily. Not need to work on technique. You just have to know how to anticipate. And "Therefore, if you play '43 'as the blue, more than half the time you will face '434' so it makes sense that you spend half your time studying and memorizing the lines arising! Concept very simple .. " For me it is not logical, because there is no 434 36 solutions in 5 minutes you learned any possible cons, more than if you play against a "low players" he can not anticipate, so all the odds are on your side. Against the "weak players" I earn 100% of my 434 games. and there is always the same style that returns 3 (so if you spend 50% of your time to learn 3 style is not to earn more) and more if you play against a "low players" you can not play by heart. For the "low players" play pif. You just have to know how to anticipate. I invite you to play, if you want it! Good luck and Have fun with it!