If you choose not to have your program participate in the tournament, you will need to notify me in your final submission.
As usual, all programs must be executable in the UNIX environment. The programs may be written in any reasonable language, and I will provide glue code and specifications shortly for a tournament library which programs will use to play: I will also put the referee itself online.
The required standard of quality for grading purposes is that you implement depth-limited minimax search with a reasonable heuristic, or a reasonable learning algorithm. Your program must play legal moves in all game positions. Anything else is bonus.
Keep in mind that you will not in any way be graded based on your standing in the tournament: the winner is not guaranteed an A, nor the loser likely to be denied one. As always, your code should be readable, well-engineered, modular, and maintainable.