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> It still has the scent of alpha-beta-with-some-evaluation-function,
> which is probably not the right paradigm for go.

No matter how you slice it, the problem is evaluation.  I'm a strong
believe in tree search,  but it must be combined with knowledge in the
right proportions.

UCT is a very clever tree search algorithm, very smart because it's
incredibly selective and yet it uses on the fly experience to simulate
GO knowledge.   I think it also happens to simulate how we humans play
better than even the pure knowledge and pattern approach.   Humans use
pattern knowledge at a low level and imagination at a high level and
good UCT implementations simulate this well in my opinion.

In my opinion, UCT is the best thing we have right now.  If UCT had not
been discovered, then Hsu's approach is perfectly reasonable and would
be the best known try although it would surely produce weak play.   But
I think he is capable of making a piece of hardware using alpha beta
that will beat the current best programs.

I have done experiments with patterns that suggest that it would be
possible to build a heavily pruned tree which could be used in a global
searcher using ordinary alpha beta pruning.   The amount of pruning
possible (in a reasonably fast way) is hard to determine, I never found
enough to make a global searcher very feasible in 19x19.   The idea is
to use patterns to find moves that have very low probability of being
playable.    For a scalable alpha beta searcher the probability of being
playable would have to be considered by depth (prune more near leaf nodes.)

So I personally believe a feasible alpha/beta searcher is possible, if a
high quality evaluation function is combined with a highly selective
global search in a pragmatic way.    One has to be very aggressive about
finding moves that can be thrown out and this is tough problem.  It's
not hard to find a few moves that can be pruned, but it's difficult to
eliminate the MAJORITY of moves without throwing out the baby with the
bathwater.

- - Don



> 
> We'll see.
> AvK
> _______________________________________________
> computer-go mailing list
> computer-go@computer-go.org
> http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
> 
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