Re: [computer-go] Modern brute force search in go

[Don Dailey <drd@xxxxxxx>]

> GCP has been doing now a few measurements with R=3 with his simple go
> program and already has a branching factor of 7.45

Vincent, I  don't see how it's  possible to benefit from  null move in
GO.  I used  to think this was  be perfect for go, but  I have serious
doubts after thinking about the problem.

In chess, null move measures  threats by essentially doing a pass with
a depth reduced search.  This gives one side 2 moves in a row and this
is deadly in chess and effectively measure threats even with seriously
reduced depths.

But in GO it seems to me that  even with the advantage of 2 moves in a
row the reduced  sub-search depth makes you blind.   That's because it
usually  requires really  long sequences  of specific  moves.   I know
there are  cases where it would  be quite beneficial  in filtering out
junk, but I don't believe it would be the rule like in chess, it would
be only the exception.

Does anyone have  any evidence that null move can  be pretty useful in
Go?  I ask this question honestly, I don't know the answer.

- Don



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