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Today Puzzle #691

Puzzle No. 691 – Friday 6 March

Artificial intelligence programs have defeated the world’s best in Chess and recently Go. It is estimated that Chess has approximately 10 to the power 45 possible positions. Go is said to have approximately 10 to the power 170 possible positions. Let’s consider a game many children play near perfectly, noughts and crosses (tic tac toe). How many possible board positions are there for noughts and crosses games?

Today’s #PuzzleForToday has been set by Dr Daniel Cowley and Dr Tom Todd, data scientists at Adarga.ai

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Taking no symmetries or rules of the game into account:
Total board configurations 3^9 = 19,683

Total possible games (sequences of moves) 9! = 362,880

Taking board symmetries and rules of the game into account:

Total board configurations: 5478

Total games: 31,896

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