Making Connections at GLDI

by Joung Park

For many students at GLDI, the afternoon is a time to relax and recover from food coma.  But for those students willing to venture from their rooms, opportunities abound for entertainment.

One popular afternoon activity is a match of Connect Four, the self-described “ultimate upright checker dropping challenge.” For those unfamiliar with the game, Connect Four involves dropping checker pieces into a standing board that is seven slots wide and six slots tall. The objective of the game is to complete a row of four before your opponent does. While the two children grinning on the front of the game box may lead you to believe that the game is child’s play, Connect Four is actually a study in complex decision making.

There are two ways to win a match of Connect Four. The first way is for your opponent to suffer from brain cramp and inexplicably forget to block your row of three checkers.  From there, all you have to do is place the last checker to complete your row of four.  However, this first method requires some luck as well as gross negligence on the part of your opponent.

On the other hand, if you wish to forge your own Connect Four destiny, you must carefully plot your moves. One effective strategy, the “double trap,” consists of placing your pieces in such a pattern that if your opponent attempts to block one row of four, this attempt will then allow you to complete a different row of four.

Because any experienced opponent is familiar with this “double-trap” tactic, you must be careful not to make your intentions overt. In addition, the ability to predict your opponent’s next moves and visualize the different options available to you is vital to attaining Connect Four supremacy. Who would have guessed that a game designed for ages 7 and up would involve game theory and abstract logic, among others? But then again, the students at GLDI are learning the truth of the scriptures, that “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise”.