----- Original Message ----

> From: Rémi Coulom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

> According to my experience with Go data, it is not possible to give the 
> value of one stone in terms of Elo ratings. For weak players, one stone 
> is a lot less than 100 Elo. For stronger players, it may be more.
> 
> Also, it is very important to understand that the Elo model is very 
> wrong, and Elo against humans has nothing to do with Elo against 
> computers (and even less with Elo against the previous version). In 
> games against GNU Go, Crazy Stone improved 200-300 Elo points in one 
> year. On KGS, this translated into an improvement from 2k to 1k.

Overspecialization? GNU Go has known weaknesses; learn to exploit those, and 
your win rate can easily approach 100%. But playing against a variety of 
opponents, with different strengths and weaknesses, one might not do so well. 
The exploit might even be an objectively weaker play. Many human players rely 
on "trick plays" which trap unwary opponents; the value of the move depends 
upon the probability distribution of the opponents' response. The best reply 
puts you behind, but the more probable replies give you an advantage. 

In the Mogo vs MyungWan Kim game, Myungwan Kim attempted such an overplay, to 
which Mogo made the correct reply. As Mr. Kim said, in a handicap game one must 
make overplays to win - the question is, which overplays will succeed?

Winning rates are important, but to really boost their strength, programs 
should take the time to do post-game analysis to find provably optimal moves 
which would defeat any conceivable strategy; this knowledge should then be 
condensed to a form which can be computed more rapidly during the course of 
actual games. 



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