Game designer wins Olympic silver

Mr Bochenski hopes to win gold next year

A British-designed computer program that plays a child's game has won a silver medal at an international competition.

University of Nottingham student David Bochenski, from St Albans in Hertfordshire, designed the program as part of his mathematics course.

He entered it in the Computer Olympiad held in Graz, Austria, last month.

Dubbed "Deep Beige", the program won him a silver medal against other programmes that play the game dots and boxes.

The top prize was won by a program from the United States.

Dots and boxes - The game involves players alternating turns drawing lines between dots - The player completing the most boxes is the winner Hip to be square

Mr Bochenski said: "I was delighted to come second this year.

"It was my first time and I was against people with more experience.

"I will be doing a complete re-build for next year's event in Israel, and I hope the improved version can do one better."

Mr Bochenski is currently completing the final year of his masters degree.

However the success of Deep Beige has already been noticed by a computer programming firm in Nottingham.

The firm has employed Mr Bochenski as a freelance programmer, working one day a week.