Dec 10: Just play the game

import telnetlib
import random

def isWin(board):
    """
    GIven a board checks if it is in a winning state.
    Arguments:
          board: a list containing X,O or *.
    Return Value:
           True if board in winning state. Else False
    """
    ### check if any of the rows has winning combination
    for i in range(3):
        if len(set(board[i*3:i*3+3])) is  1 and board[i*3] is not '*': return True
    ### check if any of the Columns has winning combination
    for i in range(3):
       if (board[i] is board[i+3]) and (board[i] is  board[i+6]) and board[i] is not '*':
           return True
    ### 2,4,6 and 0,4,8 cases
    if board[0] is board[4] and board[4] is board[8] and board[4] is not '*':
        return  True
    if board[2] is board[4] and board[4] is board[6] and board[4] is not '*':
        return  True
    return False

def nextMove(board,player):
    """
    Computes the next move for a player given the current board state and also
    computes if the player will win or not.
    Arguments:
        board: list containing X,- and O
        player: one character string 'X' or 'O'
    Return Value:
        willwin: 1 if 'X' is in winning state, 0 if the game is draw and -1 if 'O' is
                    winning
        nextmove: position where the player can play the next move so that the
                         player wins or draws or delays the loss
    """
    ### when board is '*********' evaluating next move takes some time since
    ### the tree has 9! nodes. But it is clear in that state, the result is a draw
    if len(set(board)) == 1: return 0,4

    nextplayer = 'X' if player=='O' else 'O'
    if isWin(board) :
        if player is 'X': return -1,-1
        else: return 1,-1
    res_list=[] # list for appending the result
    c= board.count('*')
    if  c is 0:
        return 0,-1
    _list=[] # list for storing the indexes where '-' appears
    for i in range(len(board)):
        if board[i] == '*':
            _list.append(i)

    for i in _list:
        board[i]=player
        ret,move=nextMove(board,nextplayer)
        res_list.append(ret)
        board[i]='*'
    if player is 'X':
        maxele=max(res_list)
        return maxele,_list[res_list.index(maxele)]
    else :
        minele=min(res_list)
    return minele,_list[res_list.index(minele)]

def parseboard(s):
    board = s.split('\n')
    newboard = [ board[-9][3],board[-9][7],board[-9][11],
                 board[-6][3],board[-6][7],board[-6][11],
                 board[-3][3],board[-3][7],board[-3][11]]
    return(nextMove(newboard,'X'))

def play():
    board = tn.read_until("Make your move. Type the number of the field you want to set! (1-9)",0.1)

    if "HV17"  in board:
        print board
        return

    if "Make your move. Type the number of the field you want to set! (1-9)" in board:
        nm = parseboard(board)
        tn.write(str(nm[1]+1)+"\n")
    elif "Congratulations" in board:
        print board

    if "Press enter to start" in board:
        tn.write("\n")


# Start the game
server = "challenges.hackvent.hacking-lab.com"
port = 1037
tn = telnetlib.Telnet(server, port)

while True:
    play()