On 13-aug-08, at 00:18, David Fotland wrote:
I don't know that joseki knowledge mad Many Faces stronger. Go
Intellect
always used to turn off the joseki libraries in tournaments against
Many
Faces, since it had a better win rate if it avoided joseki moves.
I suppose
that's some evidence that joseki knowledge helps.
I think that's not exactly right. Joseki's may help. But another
important feature of joseki is it makes the game a lot shorter. Since
both sides potentially are going to agree on a long line of play, the
whole joseki becomes as if it's one choice. If you play a weaker
opponent, your chances improve as the game becomes longer. If I
remember well this was exactly the reason Ken Chen sometimes turned
joseki off, because he thought the contribution of strength of the
joseki was smaller than the longer game-length against opponents he
perceived weaker. Against Goliath he turned joseki on, for exactly
the same reason.
So if anything this is an argument against josekis, apparently it
doesn't really add much strength. Against people they helped. But
probably also because it helped make the game shorter against what
was by then almost by defintition a stronger opponent. And it made
people think better of the programs if they saw it play well-known
joseki.
Mark
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