Don Dailey wrote (about big/small wins)
It actually surprises me that go players care about this ...
One difference with chess is that you don't play chess after
the game is over. The comparison could be: the king is
captured, the loser keeps playing and then the winner
gives the queen for nothing. Bad moves hurt! And we get to
the really important part of a any program: The user.
Many users feel stolen by UCT programs. I have read that
in the KGS chatrooms. Normal users do not count with
+/- 0.5 point precision. They have the impression the
program blundered and they caught up. But when the
program counts, surprise!, it wins by 0.5 points Chinese.
The users were thinking Japanese even if they accepted
Chinese rules. In fact, they did not have the choice.
They get the impression the game was stolen by
"technicalities" after they saw the engine blunder many
times.
Of course, I know there is a good reason for how UCT
works. And improving style is much less important than
improving strength. But many players don't want to adapt
to "computer settings". They want computers to win the
game as they have always played it.
Jacques.
_______________________________________________
computer-go mailing list
computer-go@computer-go.org
http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
