Cluck has no AI subscription, no server brain, and no secret list of scripted games. Its memory is a small table of board positions and move values, stored right in your browser.
01 · Play. Get feedback. Update.
After each completed round, Cluck replays both players’ moves backward. A win is worth +1; a draw is 0. Good moves get more valuable. A move that lets the opponent win gets less valuable. This is tabular reinforcement learning, using a two-player Q-learning update.
Q(s,a) ← Q(s,a) + α [target − Q(s,a)]
target = −0.98 × max Q(opponent’s next moves)
Terminal target: win = +1, draw = 0
The minus sign matters: a strong position for your opponent is bad for you. Rotated and mirrored boards share memories, so Cluck does not have to relearn every corner.
02 · Learning mode
One-move rules take immediate wins and block immediate threats. Other moves use learned values, with occasional experimentation. The exploration rate falls with experience, but never reaches zero. More practice can improve its strategy; individual rounds are not guaranteed to make it stronger.
03 · Unbeatable mode
Exact minimax searches every relevant continuation and only permits moves with the best possible outcome. Learning breaks ties between equally safe choices. From a fresh board, your best result is a draw. This guarantee comes from search, not machine learning.
04 · Extra practice & honest scores
New birds receive 1,000 starter practice rounds. The training button adds 5,000 more against a mix of self-play, random players, immediate-win/block players, and a perfect-search coach. “Hatch fresh” removes all practice and starts at zero.
The chart reports wins plus draws in a fixed-seed 200-game test against a win/block bot, with Cluck’s exploration disabled. It is not a probability of beating a human and does not certify perfect play. Testing never changes the brain.
Each browser has its own chicken. Learning is saved locally when browser storage is available. It is not shared between visitors or devices. Private browsing, clearing site data, or changing the site address can lose access to it. Save a brain file to keep a backup.
Touch a square, use keys 1–9, or navigate the board with arrow keys and press Enter. Sound is optional. Scores combine both modes. Changing modes, changing the first player, or restarting discards an unfinished round without scoring or learning it.