Well, Amen!
To add a few supporting items to Don's recent description of Go-playing ability
and intransitivity -- browsing xmp.senseis.net shows that many players have
similar experiences when playing Go. The vocabulary to define different aspects
of Go knowledge is vast - joseki, fuseki, middle-game, yose ( end-game ),
tesuji, and so forth. Expert players analyzing games do evaluate relative worth
- this move is slack, this one is ok but not the best, this is the best move,
this move exploits the presence of that stone over there, this move shows
fighting spirit.
Players often do find that they can beat some more easily than others. I often
play one of several shodans in my club with a 5 or 6 stone handicap. Some
terrify me with their ability to read tactical situations; some are actually
not much better at tactics than I, but excel at strategy. There are well-known
barriers, such as the ability to exploit ko or seki, which beginning players
take time to master; or the endgame - a more skilled player can sometimes pick
up 20 or 30 points in yose.
Regarding human ability to improve with time -- while playing on Dragon Go
Sever, a turn-based server ( the www equivalent of correspondence Go ), I found
that taking time to analyze a game could in fact lead to some very sharp plays
on my part, much better than I could accomplish with 30 minutes per game. I
sometimes spent 30 minutes on a single move. Some of that study translated to
internalized knowledge; my club rank has improved by 3 stones.
____________________________________________________________________________________
TV dinner still cooling?
Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV.
http://tv.yahoo.com/
_______________________________________________
computer-go mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
