On Tue, Oct 30, 2007 at 12:55:21PM -0700, steve uurtamo wrote: > If you're ahead and go for a bigger win, generally you're > just risking more to gain more when you don't need more. > > there is *absolutely* no advantage from a game-theoretical > point of view to try to win by more than 0.5 points. and in > practice, it's generally not a great idea to try to win by any > more than you absolutely have to.
On the other hand, it is equally pointless to throw out points in order to win by exactly 0.5 points. Especially if doing so increases your risk of miscalculation etc. I bet most of us have played a game where we thought things were nicely under control, only to have the opponent to play a surprising tesuji and gain a few points in the endgame. If one was pointedly aiming at a 0.5 point victory, such a tesuji could loose the game. If one was avoiding risks, but among equal moves, choosing the one that maximizes the score, such risk would be smaller. Of course this does not apply if one has confidence in having the game perfectly well analysed, and will know how the game will end. Such finesse is seldomly seen in kyu-level human players. And computer programs are not quite that perfect either... - H -- Heikki Levanto "In Murphy We Turst" heikki (at) lsd (dot) dk _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list [email protected] http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
