Of course my comment was tongue in cheek, but I agree with you. UCT programs are not as good at tactics as they are in understanding the game as a whole.
I'm really not a good player, not qualified to speak about this, but I have an impression about how they manage to beat program that are tactically better and I would like to get your impression as well as others: Simply put, UCT seeks a pathway that keeps it out of trouble. They don't have to fully understand all tactics to have enough sense to simply go a different way. But they are still good enough that they won't turn down a good fight if the position calls for it. They play go the way I used to win in "dodge ball" when I was a kid. I was not the most athletic, but I just stayed alert and avoided the battle until almost everyone had knocked each other out. Usually who was left was a few geeks like myself and it was easy to take them out (because they were geeks!) I don't think I was actually smarter than anyone else, I just though it was more fun to see if I could win. To them, running TOWARD the ball was the way to go because that's where all the fun was! That's how I think UCT program play - the same strategy - avoid the fights you might not win. Apparently they have added the strategy to also annoy the opponent by making him think it's still close! :-) - Don On Thu, 2007-04-05 at 11:07 -0700, David Fotland wrote: > Every go book says that to get better you need to see the big picture :) > The big difference between low kyu and high dan players is seeing the big > picture. Low kyu players are already pretty good at local tactics. If you > read commentaries you will see a lot of waords about "direction of play", > which is a big picture concept, and not so much about tactics. > > I agree with you that a big strength of UCT is its ability to see the big > picture. Older go programs were stronger at local tactics than sam-strength > people, and weaker at big picture. UCT seems to be stronger at big picture > and weaker at tactics. > > David > > > > > Wouldn't that be a hoot? To get better at GO you will be taught to > > see the big picture - think more like a computer! :-) > > > > - Don > > > > _______________________________________________ > > computer-go mailing list > > computer-go@computer-go.org > > http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/ > > > > _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list computer-go@computer-go.org http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
