Re: computer-go: A problem with understanding lookahead

["Mark Boon" <tesuji@xxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: William Harold Newman <william.newman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <computer-go@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2001 3:51 AM
Subject: Re: computer-go: A problem with understanding lookahead


> On Sat, Jan 20, 2001 at 02:56:52AM +0100, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
> > A queen is 10 points worth in beginners terms.
> >
> > That's nearly half of all your pieces.
> >
> > In go terms that's equal to start with 150 stones up.
>
> "Start with 150 stones up" would be 150 handicap stones, right? I.e.,
> you don't just mean playing a game with 150 points of komi?
>
> I'd have said taking away a queen takes away nearly a third of the
> value of your position, measured only in material:
>   10 / (10 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 3 + 8 or so) = 10 / (34 or so)
>

You forget the king. The king has some power as well. Another way of looking
at it is that the king is worth an infinite amount, since you can't afford
to lose it, hence all relative comparisons to points in Go are rubbish
anyway. The value of the chess-pieces other than the kings is only relative
to each other and not relative to the game.