I will discuss 3 board games that I am interested in and whether perfect game play is determined or undetermined with the result. These 3 in order I will discuss are Connect 4, Checkers and Chess and yes, all 3 begin with a c and no, it wasn't intentional.
Connect 4
Connect 4 is a 7 by 6 game, 7 columns and 6 rows and is a solved game. If both sides play perfect, the player going first will always win on exactly their 21st move and the game's 41st move. Considering the game has 21 pieces for each player, the player going first will always win if played perfectly, even if their opponent played perfectly. They win on their maximum last move and yes, this is a forced win. There is no way possible for the 2nd player to win or the game to be a forced draw if the 1st player makes the perfect move.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Connect-Four.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connect_Four
If you want the solved solution, view the links.
Checkers
Checkers is a game played on an 8 by 8 board with normally black and red pieces and black always goes first. Each player gets 12 pieces and if you reach your opponent's last row, you get a king and can move forward or backwards. With perfect play by both people, this game is a forced draw without a winner. Usually it is very hard to force a draw once a single mistake and non perfect move is made and not sure how many positions can force a draw but if played perfectly by both, nobody wins. It is a solved game. The only difference between the solved game of Connect 4 and checkers is that Connect 4 produces a winner but checkers doesn't if played perfectly.
Please view the link for the solved solution to checkers.
Chess
Chess is unknown if it is solved or unsolved. Chess is played on an 8 by 8 board, usually using normally white pieces and black pieces and white always goes first. Each player gets 16 pieces: 8 pawns, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 2 rooks, 1 queen, 1 king. It is unknown if this game is solvable or not but placed in certain positions, there can be a 500+ moves with forced checkmates, which requires very tight and precise moves without margin of error even if opponent played perfectly. Here is the largest checkmate in n number of moves I've seen online, which is 545 moves, lasting 12 minutes.
Yes. This checkmate is not random moves but forced. The opponent can not prevent the impeding future checkmate. It is still unknown if at beginning if this game is solved or not.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChessChess
Conclusion:
There are many solved and unsolved games. Many solved games has it where the 2nd player always wins with perfect game play by both also. If a game is solved, then knowing the perfect move is key or best move is somewhat very vital too. Maybe one day a person can learn if chess is solved. It is very hard to prove if not impossible to show that a game has no solution. It is hard yo prove it is unsolvable but as gar as we know, chess is unsolved but not known if it has a solution or not. Maybe it does has one or maybe it doesn't. Thanks for reading!
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