----- Original Message ----
From: Dave Dyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> One of my favorite observations about Go is that expert play tends to be "on
> the edge of catastrophe".
> By playing better moves on the average, you become more vulnerable to the
> occasional misstep.
> If a program is not very good, random better or worse moves do not have much
> effect. If the program improves, it's closer to the edge, and random
> missteps are more likely to make it fall off the cliff.
That's very true. Optimal play could be just enough to defend a group, assuming
perfect play. Make a single misplay, and being "one liberty ahead" in a
capturing race might become "one liberty behind", and then you're toast. You
don't want to expend the move to make one group more robust, since you could
gain more elsewhere. Thus, a pro would leave a lot of situations where groups
are just safe enough ... assuming proper follow-up. Even this is an
over-simplification - a good player will leave the situation even more fluid,
sacrificing some stones to benefit others - if you make the wrong decision
about which to develop and which to sacrifice, you'll be behind a few points.
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