awwducks

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There's a horizontal scroll bar :)

I'm not sure how to format a block quote without it.

Edit: Well, just added newlines. Seems to look ok.

After reading the first few bits in the "beginner" section, this reminds me of my experience with "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go" by Kageyama Toshiro 7p [0] (Go the game). It's a terrific book where he stresses the fundamentals even if you feel like you're above it. I read the book cover-to-cover many times at different stages of my life as a go player, each time learning something new.

The book starts on ladders, a pretty basic concept that I teach to beginners within 15 minutes or so of learning the rules. [1]

  Still on ladders?  Ridiculous!  Even looking at this page is beneath me.

  Yes, but even if you feel you are being cheated, read on a little further.
  Don't forget the fundamentals.  Our study begins with ladders.

[1] http://senseis.xmp.net/?Ladders

Yep, I felt the same way. I wonder if the time constraints were optimized for AlphaGo.

One of the things I did want to see was how AlphaGo would fare in a blitz situation (i.e. really short timers).

Learning (viewing millions of professional game moves)

According to the last press conference, it was apparently strong amateur games from the internet that it used to train with. Afterwards, it just played itself, as you mentioned.

Here's a tutorial.

http://playgo.to/iwtg/en/count.html

The whole series isn't bad if you're interested in other aspects of the game.

My rough summary of the match, informed by the various commentators and random news stories.

Game 1: Lee Sedol does not know what to expect. He plays testing moves early and gets punished, losing the game decisively.

Game 2: Lee Sedol calms down and plays as if he is playing a strong opponent. He plays strong moves waiting for AlphaGo to make a mistake. AlphaGo responds calmly keeping a lead throughout the game.

Game 3: Lee Sedol plans a strategy to attack white from the start, but fails. He valiantly plays to the end, creating an interesting position after the game was decided deep in AlphaGo's territory.

Game 4: Lee Sedol focuses on territory early on, deciding to replicate his late game invasion from the previous game, but on a larger scale earlier in the game. He wins this game with a brilliant play at move 78.

Game 5: The prevailing opinion ahead of the game was that AlphaGo was weak at attacking groups. Lee Sedol crafted an excellent early game to try to exploit that weakness.

Tweet from Hassabis midgame [0]:

    #AlphaGo made a bad mistake early in the game (it didnt know a known tesuji) but now it is trying hard to claw it back... nail-biting.

Ultimately, this match was a momentous occasion for both the AI and the go community. My big curiosity is how much more AlphaGo can improve. Did Lee Sedol find fundamental weaknesses that will continue to crop up regardless of how many CPUs you throw at it? How would AlphaGo fare against opponents with different styles? Perhaps Park Jungwhan, a player with a stronger opening game. Or perhaps Ke Jie, the top ranked player in the world [1], given that they'd have access to the game records of Lee Sedol?

I also wonder if the quick succession of these games on an almost back-to-back game schedule played a role in Lee Sedol's loss.

Myungwan Kim felt that if Lee Sedol were to play AlphaGo once more, the game would be a coinflip since AlphaGo is likely stronger, but would never fix its weakness between games.

[0] https://twitter.com/demishassabis/status/709635140020871168

[1] http://www.goratings.org/

It was in the press conference for Game 4 IIRC.

I doubt it. When/if they do play such a game that humans can't explain, I'll probably be interested in some other problem.

Isn't that the nature of human endeavor? Always looking for the next challenge?

Lee Sedol definitely did not look like he was in top form there. I would say (as an amateur) his play in Game 2 was far better. It was the funky clamp position that perhaps forced AlphaGo to start falling apart this game. [0]

I wonder if Lee Sedol can find a way to replicate that in Game 5.

[0] https://twitter.com/demishassabis/status/708928006400581632

That would be amazing if it could achieve the same levels (or higher) without the bootstrapping.

The niggling thought in my mind was that AlphaGo's strength is built on human strength.

Thanks, jonah!

I recall Andrew mentioning that Myungwan will be back to comment games 4 and 5?

Ah, neat, thanks for the link. I didn't look to the AGA channel because I figured there wouldn't be a stream since Myungwan was doing live commentary.

I guess the next question on my mind is how AlphaGo might fare in a blitz game.

As a spectator, I was on the edge of my seat :)

As a 3d amateur, I'm really curious about when he resigned. It really seemed like he was playing the position out to go for the win (or perhaps to see how AlphaGo would fare in ko). It didn't look like he was searching for a place to resign.

I am really curious about the reviews from An Youngil 8p and Myungwan Kim 9p. The commentary by Redmond always tend to leave something to be desired.

Perhaps the last big question was whether AlphaGo could play ko positions. AlphaGo played quite well in that ko fight and furthermore, even played away from the ko fight allowing Lee Sedol to play twice in the area.

I definitely did not expect that.

Major credit to Lee Sedol for toughing that out and playing as long as he did. It was dramatic to watch as he played a bunch of his moves with only 1 or 2 seconds left on the clock.

I don't mind Andrew. He's a strong player in his own right so he has questions a strong amateur would have.

He inevitably asks questions you want Myungwan to answer.

I'd very much like to see Ke Jie try (and also beat) Alphago while it appears to be in the realm of possibility.

From a go player's perspective, this would have been a more exciting match. Ke Jie is largely considered the strongest player in the world right now whereas Lee Sedol is marginally weaker but has better name recognition.

Yep, terrific commentary by Myungwan Kim 9p on the AGA channel.

For the folks who aren't as familiar with the game, how did you find the commentary (for any channel)? What would you be interested in hearing for events like these?

Too early to tell, IMO. The next game will be the bigger game since Lee Sedol has a far better idea what he's up against. If the next game goes like this one did, I would be more inclined to agree with you for the remaining 3.

If you're based in LA, here's the event link.

https://www.kccla.org/english/calendar_view.asp?cid=4020&imo...

Myungwan Kim 9p will be doing live commentary at the Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles for game 3.

The second game should be a doozy since Lee Sedol will definitely know what to expect and come in full force!

A bit late, but this is the AGA feed.

https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=YZPKR7HzM_s

No one can believe it. Myungwan Kim 9p says it's likely Lee Sedol feels like he could have won. He also says Alpha Go is likely stronger than he is.

Note that the games were played even and the results were terrifyingly dominant - 5-0.

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Seems like a prime case for using a (bar/line/etc) graph to show the trend. I'm strangely disappointed in not seeing one.

Thanks.

Interesting this wasn't caught by the submission..

The one for Carmen Ortiz looks to be the same.