Re: [computer-go] Pattern matching - example play

[Heikki Levanto <heikki@xxxxxx>]

On Mon, Nov 29, 2004 at 09:41:53PM +0100, Frank de Groot wrote:
> So, why do I need to be a strong Go player?
> [...]
> There are only limited concepts.
> 
> Influence, Territory, connectivity, Ajji, Moyo, Running room, eye space,
> Sente, Ko's, etc. etc.
> It's not that there are an infinite number of concepts.
> All these concepts are explained in books and can be programmed to be
> extracted from game records.

Those concepts you mention are all explained in the first beginners
books. The hard concepts are explained in more advanced books... And no,
they are not explained in a way that is easy to translate to code, they
are explained in terms of the simpler concepts and general knowledge of
the game. For that reason alone it is important to have a decent
understanding of the game, which is the same as playing it reasonably
well. (how well is reasonable is another question)

I still don't see how you can extract exactly the relevant information
out of games. Maybe you see that in a local corner joseki, A is the most
common move, but B, C, and D are also played quite often. But how you
determine what makes a strong player to choose between those variations.
It could be the presence of a ladder breaker in the opposite corner, a
outwards facing wall along one of the sides, general balace of territory
and influence, the presence of a weak group somewhere else that can be
chased towards this corner, or a zillion other reasons. Or worst of all,
a combination of several of them!


At the current level of computer go, I feel that the programs will
benefit only a little bit from playing more good moves, compared to the
improvement they would get by avoiding the 10 worst blunders in a game.
As those blunders can (and often do) have superficial likeness to
professional level moves, your approach will not help too much in
sorting them out.

Still, even if I am sceptical of your approach, I am also curious to see
what can come out of it. Who knows, maybe you are on to something! And
thanks for sharing!

-H


-- 
Heikki Levanto   "In Murphy We Turst"     heikki (at) lsd (dot) dk

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