[keitmo]

I read an article many years ago on programing Othello. I think it was BYTE Magazine, circa early 1980s. It mentioned pitting an app using a simple heuristic technique similar to the one you describe against an app using an equally simple (but devastatingly horrible) "flip the most squares" approach.

The heuristic algorithm won by a landslide -- 60 to 4 or worse (I don't remember exactly).

[lanstin]

I read that same byte article, wrote a basic version that played the heuristic way, and was unable to beat it. Good times.

[kjellsbells]

Not the article you mention but there is a fun article in this BYTE from 1981 on a computer Othello tournament that really illustrates how far we've come. This edition of tha mag is also notable for its point in time history, as it has an editorial about the coming IBM PC and quanit ads from Apple and Microsoft that give no clue as to the revolution coming.

https://vintageapple.org/byte/pdf/198107_Byte_Magazine_Vol_0...

[geon]

A very effective heuristic is to count the number of legal moves for each player.