I think we are indeed thinking of the same instance. And yes, it would be interesting to try getting a computer to play that way.

Here's a nice exploitation of a similar idea: The Fastest and Shortest Algorithm for All Well-Defined Problems; see also the discussion at Hacker News, where in particular you might want to read the comment from me that explains roughly what's going on and the comment from Eliezer that explains one way in which Hutter's description of his algorithm claims more than it really delivers. None the less, it's a very neat idea.