Crazy Python solution – 79 characters max([b[x] for x in range(9) for y in range(x) for z in range(y) if x+y+z==12 and b[x]==b[y]==b[z]] + [0]) However, this assumes a different order for the board positions in b: 5 | 0 | 7 —+—+— 6 | 4 | 2 —+—+— 1 | 8 | 3 That … Read more
The strategy from Wikipedia for playing a perfect game (win or tie every time) seems like straightforward pseudo-code: Quote from Wikipedia (Tic Tac Toe#Strategy) A player can play a perfect game of Tic-tac-toe (to win or, at least, draw) if they choose the first available move from the following list, each turn, as used in … Read more
You know a winning move can only happen after X or O has made their most recent move, so you can only search row/column with optional diag that are contained in that move to limit your search space when trying to determine a winning board. Also since there are a fixed number of moves in … Read more