title: how to build game playing neural network in Python?
body: <p>I am a neural-network beginner.  I'd like to learn the basics of neural networks by teaching computers to play checkers.  Actually, the games I want to learn are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domineering" rel="nofollow">Domineering</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_%28board_game%29" rel="nofollow">Hex</a>.  </p>
  
  <p>These games are pretty easy to store and the rules are much simpler than chess, but there aren't too many people who play.  If I can get this idea off the ground it would be great for experimenting <a href="http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tom/Game_Theory/comb.pdf" rel="nofollow">Combinatorial Game Theory</a>.</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://pybrain.org/" rel="nofollow">PyBrain</a> seems to be the clear winner for Python neural networks, but who can walk me through how to set up a neural net for my game-playing task?  A google search turned up <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blondie24" rel="nofollow">Blondie24</a> in 2001 but it uses some genetic algorithms - I don't want to complicate things.</p>