> Most of those 55 distinct moves are rarely used in the opening. I > once heard a simple rule which seems to cover just about everything > interesting: "consider only moves which are on the 3rd and 4th lines, > and/or within a manhattan distance of n, for some small n, of some > other stone already on the board."
Wandering off the opening theme a bit, but the book, Oriental Strategy in a Nutshell, by Bruce and Sue Wilcox has numerous rules of thumb of this nature. It will probably appeal to the people on this list more than the wishy-washy "play here because it feels good" style of most traditional go books. The rules might be useful in MC heavy playouts. Going back to the topic, for 19x19 at least, I would suggest make an opening book from pro and strong amateur games. Only start using MCTS once you leave the book. Using MCTS on the first move is like trying to use a precision screwdriver to hammer in a three-inch nail: your tool will break before you get any worthwhile results. Darren -- Darren Cook, Software Researcher/Developer http://dcook.org/mlsn/ (English-Japanese-German-Chinese-Arabic open source dictionary/semantic network) http://dcook.org/work/ (About me and my work) http://dcook.org/blogs.html (My blogs and articles) _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list [email protected] http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
