I think most people would think of these games in terms are how interesting they are to play against other people. There are a great many games where people would play poorly against an omniscient player, but are not much fun to play.
Strong players prefer 19x19 mostly due to tradition, but it is more interesting game than 17x17 or 21x21. I didnt see anyone but you say that 19x19 is perfect and the other sizes are crap. This is similar to chess. The moves and startling locations of the pieces are arbitrary, and unlikely to be any better than other arbitrary choices. Still people prefer to use these rules since they are more popular, and many changes make the game less interesting. David From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Don Dailey Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 10:28 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Computer-go] 17x17 vs 19x19 I'm always pretty skeptical of subjective statement even by experts - in any field, but then again I have no basis for confirming or refuting such things being a weak player myself. It's just the idea that 19x19 is perfect and 17x17 and 21x21 is crap seems unlikely to me, an admittedly weak player myself. I kind of like to think of games (of perfect information) in terms of what chance does a top human (or future human) player have a beating or drawing a player who is omniscient in the game. If that chance is very close to zero, it's a good game and it doesn't make it a "better game" to make the chances even lower. In fact what is "better" is pretty subjective, isn't it? All games of perfect information are rigged anyway. They have a predetermined outcome that will be reached with perfect play, so they are basically sophisticated puzzles. Don On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 4:31 PM, Alain Baeckeroot <[email protected]> wrote: Le 15/07/2010 à 19:30, Don Dailey a écrit : > In computer checkers it's all about the openings. ... > So perhaps 9x9 go is starting to be somewhat like that. ... > Never say never, but I believe that even 11x11 Go is deep enough so that > opening preparation could only play a minor role for the foreseeable future. ... > I'm not suggesting that 19x19 should not be the standard board size for go - Your thoughts remind me something i was told by a strong amateur (kgs 7d) about the transition from 17x17 to 19x19 which occured several centuries ago. "17x17 is boring" because the border have "just the right size" to be stable, that is standard well known corner josekis and extensions allow to take the border without problem, whereas on the 19x19 there is additional space, which give weakness, so possibility for invasion/erosion/trouble. I hope some strong go player on the list can better explain this. my 2 cents. Alain. _______________________________________________ Computer-go mailing list [email protected] http://dvandva.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/computer-go
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