Connect 4 with towardsdatascience's tutorial

import sys
from typing import Tuple

import numpy as np


def idebug(*args):
    # return
    print(*args, file=sys.stderr)


def debug(*args):
    # return
    print(*args, file=sys.stderr)


# def print_grid(bb: int, player_id: str = 'X', idebug: str = 'True'):
#     if idebug:
#         for i in range(6, -1, -1):
#             t0 = (bin((bb >> 9 * i) & 511)[2:]).rjust(9, ".")
#             t = [player_id if j == "1" else "." for j in t0]
#             debug("".join(t))

"""
    Creating the (nearly) perfect connect-four bot with limited move time and file size:
        https://towardsdatascience.com/creating-the-perfect-connect-four-ai-bot-c165115557b0
"""


def get_position_mask_bitmap(board: np.array, player: int) -> Tuple[int, int]:
    """
    Calculate
        * one bitstring representing the positions of the tokens of a player (position)
        * one bitstring representing the positions of both players (mask)
    :param board: 2D numpy array   game board (element is 0, 1 or 2)
    :param player:
    :return: position, mask
    """
    position, mask = '', ''
    # Start with right-most column
    for j in range(WIDTH - 1, -1, -1):
        # Add 0-bits to sentinel
        mask += '0'
        position += '0'
        # Start with bottom row
        for i in range(HEIGHT):
            mask += ['0', '1'][board[i, j] != 0]
            position += ['0', '1'][board[i, j] == player]
    return int(position, 2), int(mask, 2)


# Drop chips in the columns.
# Connect at least 4 of your chips in any direction to win.

# my_id: 0 or 1 (Player 0 plays first)
# opp_id: if your index is 0, this will be 1, and vice versa
my_id, opp_id = [int(i) for i in input().split()]
idebug(my_id, opp_id)

WIDTH, HEIGHT = 9, 7

# game loop
while True:
    turn_index = int(input())  # starts from 0; As the game progresses, first player gets [0,2,4,...] and second player gets [1,3,5,...]
    idebug(turn_index)
    board = np.arange(HEIGHT * WIDTH).reshape(HEIGHT, WIDTH)
    for i in range(HEIGHT):
        board_row = input()  # one row of the board (from top to bottom)
        idebug(board_row)
        for j, element in enumerate(list(board_row)):
            board[i, j] = int(element) + 1 if element != '.' else 0
    num_valid_actions = int(input())  # number of unfilled columns in the board
    idebug(num_valid_actions)
    for i in range(num_valid_actions):
        action = int(input())  # a valid column index into which a chip can be dropped
        idebug(action)
    opp_previous_action = int(input())  # opponent's previous chosen column index (will be -1 for first player in the first turn)
    idebug(opp_previous_action)

    my_id += 1
    opp_id += 1
    me = np.arange(HEIGHT * WIDTH).reshape(HEIGHT, WIDTH)
    op = np.arange(HEIGHT * WIDTH).reshape(HEIGHT, WIDTH)
    for j in range(WIDTH):
        for i in range(HEIGHT):a
            me[i, j] = 1 if board[i, j] == my_id else 0
            op[i, j] = 1 if board[i, j] == opp_id else 0

    my_position, my_mask = get_position_mask_bitmap(board=board, player=my_id)
    op_position, op_mask = get_position_mask_bitmap(board=board, player=opp_id)