I have been able to find precious little information about this. I know Viktor Allis did a threat-space search and solved Gomoku with a piece of software called Victoria. I have been unable to find any source for this program or even a database or description of the solution. I am developing a Gomoku program and I'd like to test it against perfect play. Anyone know where I could find anything related to this? Or at least a program that plays a very strong game of Gomoku.

Gomoku is the same thing as connect five, isn't it?
I did manage to find this:
http://biphome.spray.se/dread/connect5.html
but it's not a perfect solution. I did see a few that implemented something like alpha beta, but they weren't explained well and I doubt they were perfect either. I'd be happy to hear how this project goes. I might see if I can come up with something myself just for fun.

Yeah.. I've found a lot of little applets that play Gomoku. The best program I found so far was a little downloadable called Gomoku Analyzer.

It is the strongest I've found so far and my program beats it almost everytime when it moves first and over half of the time when it goes second.

I'm using a crude learning algorithm I threw together on my own and on the fly and still it seems to learn fast enough to beat anything I can find (including me.. easily).

Obviously since it doesn't win 100% of the time as player 1, it is not playing perfectly.

I'm using minimax with alpha-beta.. i haven't even bothered with mtd(f) and a large transposition table. (i think transposition tables help gomoku greatly especially in the beginning)

it has an opening book but it modifies it depending on outcomes of games and quality of positions it reaches.

The only reason I've thrown this crude program together is because I can't find any way to contact Viktor Allis, find out about his program Viktoria or the solution she found.

I've read the pdf about Viktoria. Been linked to it seven thousand times in four thousand forums. it's really of no use. A threat-space search is easy to understand, I'd just like to see the solution.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

To make matters more difficult, Viktor Allis seems to have disapeared off the face of the earth. Maybe he did a threat-space search of the universe and found out something he wasn't supposed to.

But seriously, if anyone knows anything about this or at least can point me towards someone who is two or three leaps away then I would be most appreciative.

There are several games which have been "solved" but for which there is no computer that has perfect play. The two are not the same because in "threat space search" the opponent is allowed to make several responses in a single turn, responding to all threats simultaneously. This allows Allis to show that the game is a win for white/black etc... but doesn't tell you what is perfect play in a normal game.

I wonder what you guys think is the BEST/Strongest Gomoku program free for download out there? or maybe one that u've made?