Re: Strong players only?

[Jeremy Thorpe <jthorpe@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I was just looking through the Ing cup pages. Results are here
> (congragulations to David Fotland!):
>    http://www.britgo.demon.co.uk/ing/results.html
> 
> What caught my interest was the below quote from Professor Chen, describing
> Wulu. How many people agree or disagree that a poor go player cannot be a
> good go programmer, and why do you think that?
> 
> This is an important issue with more and more of the AI community becoming
> interested in computer go.
> 
> Darren
> 

yes, i do believe this:  for handcrafted go playing systems, such as
manyfaces (david fotland's agent), it is absolutely imperative that the
programmer be very familiar with go strategy.  currently there are no
'generic' go programs that can compete at this level.

also, on a related note, the programming team which defeated Gary Kasparov
(Big Blue) included at least one grand master.  until a serious system is
developed which can learn to play any arbitrary game, it will require a
strong go player to write a strong go program.

(my $.02)

-jeremy