Programming for Fun

I enjoy programming and I do it at work, for school, and on my free time. My most recent project is part of my Masters Project. I am working on a checkers game for the iPhone that uses the Minimax algorithm, but slightly modified.

Computer games like checkers and chess can look ahead to find the "best" next move based on perfect on each side. Well when you play against a human opponent they can't always look ahead as far, so they will not make the best move, which throws off what the computer was expecting. What this project does is implement Trappy Minimax. As the name implies it is minimax but with traps. If the computer looks ahead to 5 plys (2.5 full moves) and the human opponent can maybe look ahead his move and your next one,then you can set a trap. Just look for moves that appear to be good for the opponent until ply-5.