FOUR WINS
Connect Four against a search engine that really computes.
Android 8.0, iOS 17 and macOS 14 and up · network only for games against others · no accounts, no ads, no tracking
What it does
A small game with a serious opponent. The search runs on the device — in Kotlin on Android, in Swift on iPhone, iPad and Mac — and the game logic has no interface dependencies at all.
A real opponent
Negamax with alpha–beta pruning, move ordering from the centre outwards and a transposition table. Unbeatable searches iteratively as deep as it manages in 1.4 seconds — around thirteen plies on an empty board.
Threat markers
A green ring marks the column where you win on the next move, a dashed red ring the column where the machine does. Switch them off once you no longer need them.
Hints that explain
The hint names a column and the reason: immediate win, forced block, double threat, necessary sacrifice or solid build-up. It never plays the move for you.
Undo
Takes back your move together with the machine's reply, so it is your turn again in the same position. Useful for exploring a line you were unsure about.
Statistics
Wins, losses, draws, win rate, current and longest streak, fastest win — broken down by difficulty. Stored on the device, deletable in one step.
Yours to look at
Light, dark or system. Ten colour schemes on Android, including Material You from Android 12; nine on iPhone, iPad and Mac. German and English, independent of the device language.
How to play
Seven columns, six rows, one disc each in turn.
Tap a column. The disc drops to the lowest free slot. Full columns take nothing more, and while the machine is thinking the board is locked.
Line up four. Horizontally, vertically or diagonally. If the board fills up and nobody has four in a row, the game is a draw.
Watch the rings. Green is your win next move, dashed red is the machine's. Gold is the hint you last asked for.
Pick your level. Changeable at any time, even mid-game.
| Level | Search | Deliberate mistakes |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | 2 plies | 40 % of moves |
| Medium | 4 plies | 10 % of moves |
| Hard | 7 plies | none |
| Unbeatable | iterative, 1.4 s budget | none |
Screenshots
Taken from the running app.
Privacy, in one paragraph
Four Wins uses the network only for games against other people — on Android through the
INTERNET permission, on the Mac through the sandbox's outgoing connections, on iPhone and
iPad without any prompt — and sends nothing without such a game. Statistics and settings live in a
private settings file on the device and are deleted with the app. There are no accounts, no ads, no analytics and no
third-party SDKs. The full text is in the
privacy policy.