"Personally, I could care less - I guess because I am a chess player and
I think it's weaker players who are impressed most by big wins. Very
strong chess players tend to take the long way around - taking the sure
win to the dramatic flashy quick but risky win. Weaker chess players
tend to judge the skill of the player based on how many moves it takes
to win a game but strong players know this is more a matter of playing
style - not skill.
It actually surpises me that go players care about this. I thought GO
was more about the beauty of ommision and the unstated understanding
of event that don't actually have to happen to be appreciated.
- Don"
It depends on what your purpose is in playing the game in the first place. If
you're simply aiming to create a program that is able to win against strong
players, then it makes sense to simply play the move that it thinks is going to
give it the greatest probability of a win. This makes sense for those
developing cutting edge go playing programs and trying to achieve the highest
rank possible.
What I want from a commercial go playing program is one that I can use to learn
to be a better go player. This brings up two important deficiencies in the
"win by 0.5" strategy. If I'm always loosing by half a point, It's difficult
for me to see when I'm playing well and when I'm playing poorly. If the
computer doesn't exploit my weaknesses because it knows that it will win
anyway, then I won't learn to defend properly. I'll never know if I "almost
won" or if the computer was just toying with me the whole way. The feedback
from "the computer just killed everything" can help me play better.
Secondly, we learn by emulating better players (though some may disparage blind
emulation, it's easier to learn why a certain play is good if you're using it
in your own games.) If the computer gets comfortably ahead then plays strange
moves, it's difficult for me to learn normal proper endgame moves by watching
the computer play.
Maybe it will be better when a commercial version of MoGo is available and I
can turn the difficulty settings way down so that I have a chance to actually
win a game or two. Are there any plans for a commercial version of MoGo?
---------------------------------
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