Re: computer-go: Computer Go Ladder

[Eric Pettersen <pett@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tuesday, April 15, 2003, at 09:09 AM, Daniel Bump wrote:

> > I was just perusing the computer go ladder web page and noticed that 
> > there
> > doesn't seem to have been any games played since last May! Is it still
> > active, or have all the real-life tournaments and Stefan Mertin's 
> > generously
> > run tournament's made it redundant?
> I think in principle the ladder is active but nobody has issued
> any challenges. GNU Go (for example) has usually only issued challenges
> when we felt we would probably win, and it seems GNU Go would
> still be the underdog against Many Faces.
Exactly.  I think Stefan's automated tournament probably satisfies most 
programmer's curiosity as to how their program would do versus others.  
If the ladder goes another year without challenges, I'll probably 
retire it.

> An unfortunate irregularity is that Go4++ was allowed to enter
> the ladder in the middle (above GNU Go and other programs)
> instead of working its way up from the bottom as every other
> program did.
I guess I didn't want to force Michael to go the long road up from the 
bottom (15 other programs) since his program already had a strong track 
record.  It was a humanitarian gesture. :-)  Probably won't happen 
again.

        Further information about the computer Go ladder can
        be found at: http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/go/ladder.html

                Eric Pettersen
                Computer go ladder administrator
                pett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx