Strategy deep-dives, game history, AI insights, and site updates
You do not need a database of ten thousand openings to play solid chess. Most club and casual games are decided long after the opening is over, and memorising deep theory before you understand why the moves are good does more harm than good. Here are the five openings that will serve you from your first game to your thousandth.
New Reversi players flip as many discs as possible every turn. Experienced players do the opposite. The reason comes down to corners, edges, and a concept called stability that changes everything about how the game works.
HistoryFrom Mesopotamian royal tombs to Istanbul coffeehouses to your browser tab, backgammon has outlasted every other board game. Here is how it survived five millennia of changing rules, cultural bans, and the rise of chess.
AI Deep DiveThe Hard AI on PlayVersusAI plays Connect 4 at near-perfect strength. This article explains the three ideas behind it: the minimax algorithm, alpha-beta pruning to make it fast, and bitboard representation to make it faster still.
Tips & TricksMancala looks random until you start counting. The sowing mechanic is entirely deterministic — every move has one possible outcome — and once you learn to trace where seeds land, setting up captures and extra turns becomes a matter of arithmetic, not luck.
Site UpdateWe have added real-time multiplayer to every turn-based game on PlayVersusAI. Create a room, share the code, and play live against a friend or a stranger — with optional move timers and password-protected rooms.
HistoryIn 2007, a team at the University of Alberta proved that perfect checkers play by both sides always ends in a draw. Chess remains unsolved and almost certainly always will be. What makes these two games so different, and what does "solved" even mean?
StrategyIf you can solve Easy and Medium puzzles but hit a wall on Hard, you are probably missing hidden pairs, pointing pairs, and box-line reduction. These three techniques, once you know what to look for, turn most hard puzzles into manageable ones.
StrategyDots and Boxes looks like a game for children. It is not. The key to winning at any level is understanding chains — connected sequences of boxes that, once opened, must be given away. Control the chains and you control the game.
Tips & TricksReplays are the most underused learning tool on the site. Here is a method for watching them that turns a five-minute review into real improvement, whether you are studying your own games or someone else's.
This is where we write about the games on PlayVersusAI in more depth than a strategy guide allows. Expect articles on opening theory, endgame technique, historical context, the AI engines that power each game, and the occasional site update when we launch something new. New posts go up regularly, and you can always come back here for the full archive.
If there is a topic you would like us to cover — a game you want explained, a strategy you cannot crack, or a feature you want to see — let us know on the contact page.