Re: Judging programs from one example and random play

["Magnus Persson" <magnus.persson@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> Serge Boisse wrote:
 
> Whow ! if a random player is 100 Kyu and you played with it at 120 stones, this
> means you are 20 Dan ! Very impressive ;-). For me, I still can be in trouble
> with a random player at 70 stones...
> I'm really wondering about the real strength of a random player : it's amazing
> how, by just adding a few niceties to a random program, such as avoiding
> throwing stones into her own territories, you greatly improve her strenght. Of
> course (?), subsequent improvements become much harder to implement...

(oops...)

Take any numbers I wrote with a huge grain of salt... I do not
remember the exact numbers. But playing against a random player
really takes some skill (this mean I can give 18 more stones than an
ordinary european 2dan - but only in random go ;-) ). I do not 
remember what level I started at but 70 stones is not at all 
unlikely. Another variation I recommend  is to try to capture all 
black stones, if I remember correctly (this was at least two years 
ago) I think I got problems with that around 90 stones, since those 
games are shorter.

You have to play moves that are sort of "good on average", which
means that one has to think  things like: "This White group can
connect to safety with three moves in a row in two different ways,
thus it is probably safe" or "This white group need ten moves in a
row undisturbed if black cut it of here - perhaps I should connect
it now". You do need ordinary reading skill in order to see which
groups are cut off and are eyeless, but the strategy is very
different. A random player is not likely to play two or more moves
in a row locally, so "probabilistic" life and connectivity is much
easier for white. But one still have to find efficient moves, that
destroy Black eyes, and cut off Black groups. One has to decide
which Black stones are weak enough to try to capture them and which
groups that probably  are too strong to kill. Basicly one first
tries to destroy eyeshape for Black and cut off the groups and then
connect all white stones because there are no time to make eyes for
your own stones. It is also very easy to play too fast -
underestimating the opponent - it really is important to think and
not just play randomly...

Magnus, ( 20 dan if the opponent is unable to think at all )
--
Magnus Persson
Department of psychology, Uppsala University
Box 1225, SE-751 42, Sweden
Tel 018-471 2141 (work), 018-460264 (home)
magnus.persson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.docs.uu.se/~magnuspe