Re: computer-go: Engineering (was: Most simple Go rules)

[Heikki Levanto <heikki@xxxxxx>]

On Thu, Jun 28, 2001 at 09:44:14AM -0400, Don Dailey wrote:
>    If either player passes, the arbiter calculates a score and informs
>    both parties.   If both parties agree, the game is over.

Excuse me, but why does the agreement on the score matter? Either the game
is lost or it is won!

To simplify matters further, I suggest we assume that if one program says it
has lost the game, the other program can have no serious objections to this. 

I propose a protocol that
  - Allows any part to resign at any time. Well-behaved programs should
    resign when they think the game is over, and they have lost.
  - Allows the game to continue as long as any program wants to play 

I think the old gmp satisfies both conditions.

Consider

1) If my program believes to be behind at the end of the game, the proper
thing is to say so - resign.

2) If I am unsporty, and will not resign, I will have to play somewhere, or
pass. If my opponent passes too, we can call upon a human referee, or see if
the programs (or their owners) can agree who won.

3) If I believe I am ahead, I can safely pass, or answer my opponent's moves
where necessary. 

4) If my opponent is unsporty, and tries all kind of tricks, and I can not
handle them well, too bad - I should have been able to handle them or defend
them so I that I could manage.  The same situation can happen between
humans, on a beginner level, if nobody stops them. If you can handle it,
fine. If not, you ought to learn to play better. Same applies to any
situation, if your opponent makes an unreasonable move, you either know how
to take advantage of it, or you let him get away with it. Why should this be
different at the end of the game?


All this takes is a small addition to a program: If it knows it has lost the
game, it should resign. If its opponent passes, it should resign even
easier, if it believes to be well behind. This kind of behaviour is not
specified in any ruleset that I know, but is quite common among human
players.

If 90% of the games end in resignation, the details of scoring become
somewhat less important. Of course both programs should score by the same
rules, so that they have at least a theoretical chance to reach an
agreement!

Just my $0.02

-Heikki



-- 
Heikki Levanto  LSD - Levanto Software Development   <heikki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>