Well, I beefed up the eval (including what I think are reasonable notions about space and mobility) and made some search algorithm improvements (recapture extensions and move ordering), with the result that the soon-to-be-released AHEM v0.3 is now much stronger than anything that has gone before - so much so that a 3-ply search from v0.3 easily crushes a 5-ply search from v0.1. The most irritating behaviour now is that when the search engine sees multiple wins, it comes to the conclusion that any move is winning, and basically starts moving randomly. Sigh. I need to add a bit of code to encourage it to prefer the shortest win. Still and all, whereas previously I called AHEM the world's strongest Morabaraba playing program with the tongue quite firmly in the cheek, I'm now close to having something which would be able to put some sinew behind that claim, if it were to be tested.