MACHINE AS ONE PLAYER IN INDIAN COWRY BOARD GAME: BASIC PLAYING STRATEGIES

Cowry game is an ancient board game from India, also known as Chowka Bhara. It is a race game of chance and strategy for 2-4 players, in which playing pieces are moved around a square board according to the throw of special dice (cowry shells). This game involves decision-making under uncertainty and imprecision with multiple players, and therefore can be considered as an appropriate model for real-life problems that contain stochastic components. In this research, we propose and analyze a few basic playing strategies for Cowry game, and describe the framework for the implementation of these strategies. We also provide an experimental comparison of the proposed strategies to evaluate their performances. The comprehensive study of Cowry game presented in this work can be used to gain a better understanding of the game, and may result in the formulation and implementation of more advanced strategies. It can also serve as a basis for producing better artificial players in similar strategic race games