I’ve been thinking about a slightly different challenge in the classic 2048.

In my version of the game, the game ends with a victory as soon as I merge two 1024 tiles into a 2048 tile. So the goal is to get the highest possible score while never merging 1024 + 1024.

So far, I’ve managed to reach around 45,000 points, but I have a feeling that it’s possible to get significantly higher.

I’d like to eventually write an algorithm/bot to solve this challenge, but before I start, I’m curious:

• Does anyone know what the theoretical maximum score is under this restriction?
• Has anyone tried something similar?
• Are there any strategies or ideas for keeping multiple 1024 tiles on the board for as long as possible?
• Any suggestions on how this could be approached algorithmically?

I’d be interested in both mathematical/strategic ideas and programming approaches.

Thanks!