How many draws are there in Quarto?

Question

Introduction

This challenge is similar to Project Euler problems. I came up with it because I was playing a deceivingly simple board game and couldn't come up with an efficient solution to answer a simple question about its mechanics.

Quarto is a fun variant of 4 in a row. It is played on a 4 by 4 board with 16 unique pieces (no pieces are duplicated). Every turn each player places 1 piece on the board. Each piece has 4 binary characteristics (short/tall, black/white, square/circular, hollow/solid). The goal is to make four in a row, either horizontally, vertically or along the 2 diagonals, for any of the four characteristics! So 4 black pieces, 4 white pieces, 4 tall pieces, 4 short pieces, 4 square pieces, 4 circular pieces, 4 hollow pieces or 4 solid pieces.

The picture above shows a finished game, there is a four in a row because of 4 square pieces.

Challenge

In Quarto, some games may end in a draw.

The total number of possible end positions is 16!, about 20 trillion.

How many of those end positions are draws?

Rules

1. The solution must be a program that calculates and outputs the total number of end positions that are draws. The correct answer is 414298141056

2. You may only use information of the rules of the game that have been deduced manually (no computer assisted proof).

3. Mathematical simplifications of the problem are allowed, but must be explained and proven (manually) in your solution.

4. The winner is the one with the most optimal solution in terms of CPU running time.

5. To determine the winner, I will run every single solution with a reported running time of less than 30m on a MacBook Pro 2,5 GHz Intel Core i7 with 16 GB RAM.

6. No bonus points for coming up with a solution that also works with other board sizes. Even though that would be nice.

7. If applicable, your program must compile within 1 minute on the hardware mentioned above (to avoid compiler optimization abuse)

8. Default loopholes are not allowed

Submissions

Please post:

1. The code or a github/bitbucket link to the code.
2. The output of the code.
3. Your locally measured running time
4. An explanation of your approach.

Deadline

The deadline for submissions is March 1st, so still plenty of time.

Answer 1

C: 414298141056 draws found in about 5 2.5 minutes.

Just simple depth-first search with a symmetry-aware transposition table. We use the symmetry of attributes under permutation and the 8-fold dihedral symmetry of the board.

#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <string.h>

typedef uint16_t u8;
typedef uint16_t u16;
typedef uint64_t u64;

#define P(i, j) (1 << (4 * (i) + (j)))

#define DIAG0 (P(0, 0) | P(1, 1) | P(2, 2) | P(3, 3))
#define DIAG1 (P(3, 0) | P(2, 1) | P(1, 2) | P(0, 3))

u64 rand_state;

u64 mix(u64 x) {
    u64 a = x >> 32;
    u64 b = x >> 60;
    x ^= (a >> b);
    return x * 7993060983890856527ULL;
}

u64 rand_u64() {
    u64 x = rand_state;
    rand_state = x * 6364136223846793005ULL + 1442695040888963407ULL;
    return mix(x);
}

u64 ZOBRIST_TABLE[(1 << 16)][8];

u16 transpose(u16 x) {
    u16 t = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < 4; j++) {
            if (x & P(j, i)) {
                t |= P(i, j);
            }
        }
    }
    return t;
}

u16 rotate(u16 x) {
   u16 r = 0;
   for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
       for (int j = 0; j < 4; j++) {
           if (x & P(3 - j, i)) {
                r |= P(i, j);
            }
       }
   } 
   return r;
}

void initialize_zobrist_table(void) {
    for (int i = 0; i < 1 << 16; i++) {
        ZOBRIST_TABLE[i][0] = rand_u64();
    }
    for (int i = 0; i < 1 << 16; i++) {
        int j = i;
        for (int r = 1; r < 8; r++) {
            j = rotate(j);
            if (r == 4) {
                j = transpose(i);
            }
            ZOBRIST_TABLE[i][r] = ZOBRIST_TABLE[j][0];
        }
    }
}

u64 hash_board(u16* x) {
    u64 hash = 0;
    for (int r = 0; r < 8; r++) {
        u64 h = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
            h += ZOBRIST_TABLE[x[i]][r];
        }
        hash ^= mix(h);
    }
    return mix(hash);
}

u8 IS_WON[(1 << 16) / 8];

void initialize_is_won(void) {
    for (int x = 0; x < 1 << 16; x++) {
        bool is_won = false;
        for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
            u16 stride = 0xF << (4 * i);
            if ((x & stride) == stride) {
                is_won = true;
                break;
            }
            stride = 0x1111 << i;
            if ((x & stride) == stride) {
                is_won = true;
                break;
            }
        }
        if (is_won == false) {
            if (((x & DIAG0) == DIAG0) || ((x & DIAG1) == DIAG1)) {
                is_won = true;
            }
        }
        if (is_won) {
            IS_WON[x / 8] |= (1 << (x % 8));
        }
    }
}

bool is_won(u16 x) {
    return (IS_WON[x / 8] >> (x % 8)) & 1;
}

bool make_move(u16* board, u8 piece, u8 position) {
    u16 p = 1 << position;
    for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
        bool a = (piece >> i) & 1;
        int j = 2 * i + a;
        u16 x = board[j] | p;
        if (is_won(x)) {
            return false;
        }
        board[j] = x;
    }
    return true;
}

typedef struct {
    u64 hash;
    u64 count;
} Entry;

typedef struct {
    u64 mask;
    Entry* entries;
} TTable;

Entry* lookup(TTable* table, u64 hash, u64 count) {
    Entry* to_replace;
    u64 min_count = count + 1;
    for (int d = 0; d < 8; d++) {
        u64 i = (hash + d) & table->mask;
        Entry* entry = &table->entries[i];
        if (entry->hash == 0 || entry->hash == hash) {
            return entry;
        }
        if (entry->count < min_count) {
            min_count = entry->count;
            to_replace = entry;
        }
    }
    if (to_replace) {
        to_replace->hash = 0;
        to_replace->count = 0;
        return to_replace;
    }
    return NULL;
}

u64 count_solutions(TTable* ttable, u16* board, u8* pieces, u8 position) {
    u64 hash = 0;
    if (position <= 10) {
        hash = hash_board(board);
        Entry* entry = lookup(ttable, hash, 0);
        if (entry && entry->hash) {
            return entry->count;        
        }
    }
    u64 n = 0;
    for (int i = position; i < 16; i++) {
        u8 piece = pieces[i];
        u16 board1[8];
        memcpy(board1, board, sizeof(board1));
        u8 variable_ordering[16] = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 12, 6, 9, 5, 7, 13, 10, 11, 15, 14};
        if (!make_move(board1, piece, variable_ordering[position])) {
            continue;
        }
        if (position == 15) {
            n += 1;
        } else {
            pieces[i] = pieces[position];
            n += count_solutions(ttable, board1, pieces, position + 1); 
            pieces[i] = piece;
        }
    }
    if (hash) {
        Entry* entry = lookup(ttable, hash, n);
        if (entry) {
            entry->hash = hash;
            entry->count = n;
        }
    }
    return n;
}

int main(void) {
    TTable ttable;
    int ttable_size = 1 << 28;
    ttable.mask = ttable_size - 1;
    ttable.entries = calloc(ttable_size, sizeof(Entry));
    initialize_zobrist_table();
    initialize_is_won();
    u8 pieces[16];
    for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++) {pieces[i] = i;}
    u16 board[8] = {0};
    printf("count: %lu\n", count_solutions(&ttable, board, pieces, 0));
}

Measured score (@wvdz):

$ clang -O3 -march=native quarto_user1502040.c
$ time ./a.out
count: 414298141056

real    1m37.299s
user    1m32.797s
sys     0m2.930s

Score (user+sys): 1m35.727s

Answer 2

Java, 414298141056 draws, 23m42.272s

I hope it's not frowned upon to post a solution to one's own challenge, but the reason that I posted this challenge in the first place was that it drove me crazy that I couldn't come up with an efficient solution myself. My best try would take days to complete.

After studying user1502040's answer I actually managed to modify my code to run within a somewhat reasonable time. My solution is still significantly different, but I did steal some ideas:

• Instead of focusing on end positions, I focus on actually playing the game, putting one piece after another on the board. This allows me to build a table of semantically identical positions with the correct count.
• Realizing the order in which pieces are placed matters: they should be placed such that you maximize the chance of an early win.

The main difference between this solution and user1502040's is that I don't use a Zobrist table, but a canonical representation of a board, where I consider each board to have 48 possible transpositions over the characteristics (2 * 4!). I don't rotate or transpose the whole board, but just the characteristics of the pieces.

This is the best I could come up with. Ideas for obvious or less obvious optimizations are most welcome!

public class Q {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(countDraws(getStartBoard(), 0));
    }

    /** Order of squares being filled, chosen to maximize the chance of an early win */
    private static int[] indexShuffle = {0, 5, 10, 15, 14, 13, 12, 9, 1, 6, 3, 2, 7, 11, 4, 8};

    /** Highest depth for using the lookup */
    private static final int MAX_LOOKUP_INDEX = 10;

    public static long countDraws(long board, int turn) {
        long signature = 0;
        if (turn < MAX_LOOKUP_INDEX) {
            signature = getSignature(board, turn);
            if (cache.get(turn).containsKey(signature))
                return cache.get(turn).get(signature);
        }
        int indexShuffled = indexShuffle[turn];
        long count = 0;
        for (int n = turn; n < 16; n++) {
            long newBoard = swap(board, indexShuffled, indexShuffle[n]);
            if (partialEvaluate(newBoard, indexShuffled))
                continue;
            if (turn == 15)
                count++;
            else
                count += countDraws(newBoard, turn + 1);
        }
        if (turn < MAX_LOOKUP_INDEX)
            cache.get(turn).put(signature, count);
        return count;
    }

    /** Get the canonical representation for this board and turn */
    private static long getSignature(long board, int turn) {
        int firstPiece = getPiece(board, indexShuffle[0]);
        long signature = minTranspositionValues[firstPiece];
        List<Integer> ts = minTranspositions.get(firstPiece);
        for (int n = 1; n < turn; n++) {
            int min = 16;
            List<Integer> ts2 = new ArrayList<>();
            for (int t : ts) {
                int piece = getPiece(board, indexShuffle[n]);
                int posId = transpositions[piece][t];
                if (posId == min) {
                    ts2.add(t);
                } else if (posId < min) {
                    min = posId;
                    ts2.clear();
                    ts2.add(t);
                }
            }
            ts = ts2;
            signature = signature << 4 | min;
        }
        return signature;
    }

    private static int getPiece(long board, int position) {
        return (int) (board >>> (position << 2)) & 0xf;
    }

    /** Only evaluate the relevant winning possibilities for a certain turn */
    private static boolean partialEvaluate(long board, int turn) {
        switch (turn) {
            case 15:
                return evaluate(board, masks[8]);
            case 12:
                return evaluate(board, masks[3]);
            case 1:
                return evaluate(board, masks[5]);
            case 3:
                return evaluate(board, masks[9]);
            case 2:
                return evaluate(board, masks[0]) || evaluate(board, masks[6]);
            case 11:
                return evaluate(board, masks[7]);
            case 4:
                return evaluate(board, masks[1]);
            case 8:
                return evaluate(board, masks[4]) || evaluate(board, masks[2]);
        }
        return false;
    }

    private static List<Map<Long, Long>> cache = new ArrayList<>();
    static {
        for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++)
            cache.add(new HashMap<>());
    }

    private static boolean evaluate(long board, long[] masks) {
        return _evaluate(board, masks) || _evaluate(~board, masks);
    }

    private static boolean _evaluate(long board, long[] masks) {
        for (long mask : masks)
            if ((board & mask) == mask)
                return true;
        return false;
    }

    private static long swap(long board, int x, int y) {
        if (x == y)
            return board;
        if (x > y)
            return swap(board, y, x);
        long xValue = (board & swapMasks[1][x]) << ((y - x) * 4);
        long yValue = (board & swapMasks[1][y]) >>> ((y - x) * 4);
        return board & swapMasks[0][x] & swapMasks[0][y] | xValue | yValue;
    }

    private static long getStartBoard() {
        long board = 0;
        for (long n = 0; n < 16; n++)
            board |= n << (n * 4);
        return board;
    }

    private static List<Integer> allPermutations(int input, int size, int idx, List<Integer> permutations) {
        for (int n = idx; n < size; n++) {
            if (idx == 3)
                permutations.add(input);
            allPermutations(swapBit(input, idx, n), size, idx + 1, permutations);
        }
        return permutations;
    }

    private static int swapBit(int in, int x, int y) {
        if (x == y)
            return in;
        int xMask = 1 << x;
        int yMask = 1 << y;
        int xValue = (in & xMask) << (y - x);
        int yValue = (in & yMask) >>> (y - x);
        return in & ~xMask & ~yMask | xValue | yValue;
    }

    private static int[][] transpositions = new int[16][48];
    static {
        for (int piece = 0; piece < 16; piece++) {
            transpositions[piece][0] = piece;
            List<Integer> permutations = allPermutations(piece, 4, 0, new ArrayList<>());
            for (int n = 1; n < 24; n++)
                transpositions[piece][n] = permutations.get(n);
            permutations = allPermutations(~piece & 0xf, 4, 0, new ArrayList<>());
            for (int n = 24; n < 48; n++)
                transpositions[piece][n] = permutations.get(n - 24);
        }
    }

    private static int[] minTranspositionValues = new int[16];
    private static List<List<Integer>> minTranspositions = new ArrayList<>();
    static {
        for (int n = 0; n < 16; n++) {
            int min = 16;
            List<Integer> elems = new ArrayList<>();
            for (int t = 0; t < 48; t++) {
                int elem = transpositions[n][t];
                if (elem < min) {
                    min = elem;
                    elems.clear();
                    elems.add(t);
                } else if (elem == min)
                    elems.add(t);
            }
            minTranspositionValues[n] = min;
            minTranspositions.add(elems);
        }
    }

    private static final long ROW_MASK = 1L | 1L << 4 | 1L << 8 | 1L << 12;
    private static final long COL_MASK = 1L | 1L << 16 | 1L << 32 | 1L << 48;
    private static final long FIRST_DIAG_MASK = 1L | 1L << 20 | 1L << 40 | 1L << 60;
    private static final long SECOND_DIAG_MASK = 1L << 12 | 1L << 24 | 1L << 36 | 1L << 48;

    private static long[][] masks = new long[10][4];
    static {
        for (int m = 0; m < 4; m++) {
            long row = ROW_MASK << (16 * m);
            for (int n = 0; n < 4; n++)
                masks[m][n] = row << n;
        }
        for (int m = 0; m < 4; m++) {
            long row = COL_MASK << (4 * m);
            for (int n = 0; n < 4; n++)
                masks[m + 4][n] = row << n;
        }
        for (int n = 0; n < 4; n++)
            masks[8][n] = FIRST_DIAG_MASK << n;
        for (int n = 0; n < 4; n++)
            masks[9][n] = SECOND_DIAG_MASK << n;
    }

    private static long[][] swapMasks;
    static {
        swapMasks = new long[2][16];
        for (int n = 0; n < 16; n++)
            swapMasks[1][n] = 0xfL << (n * 4);
        for (int n = 0; n < 16; n++)
            swapMasks[0][n] = ~swapMasks[1][n];
    }
}

Measured score:

$ time java -jar quarto.jar 
414298141056

real    20m51.492s
user    23m32.289s
sys     0m9.983s

Score (user+sys): 23m42.272s