Re: [computer-go] Dynamic komi

2009-08-19 Thread Weston Markham
I'm curious to find out what is meant by "lazy". If, as I am led to believe by your report, Monte Carlo strategies applied to Double Step Races are "lazy", yet they converge to perfect play, then I'm not sure why we are meant to worry. I certainly understand that the strategies can converge faste

[computer-go] Bulky nakade shapes

2009-08-19 Thread Brian Sheppard
>It is very interesting to me that you use the clump correction rule. I >could never get that to work in Fuego, either. It is my impression (with no analysis whatsoever, so draw your own conclusions) that Fuego's use of an evaluation function helps it to overcome problems in the playouts. Pebbl

[computer-go] Bulky nakade shapes

2009-08-19 Thread Martin Mueller
Following Mogo, Pebbles uses the "3-in-a-row" modification that automatically plays in the center of 3-point eyeshapes. Fuego's rules triples the chance of making a correct play when a 3-point eyespace exists, but does not guarantee that any play will be made. The rules do guarantee that the best

Re: [computer-go] Laziness

2009-08-19 Thread Don Dailey
On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 2:11 PM, Brian Sheppard wrote: > My conclusion is the same as Gian-Carlo Pascutto's: I am convinced > that the phenomenon of laziness is real, and that it hurts > practical strength. > Unfortunately this is not that point that is in question - I think we all agree on this

[computer-go] Bulky nakade shapes

2009-08-19 Thread Brian Sheppard
Following Mogo, Pebbles uses the "3-in-a-row" modification that automatically plays in the center of 3-point eyeshapes. Mogo's rule guarantees that an opponent will not be able to convert a 3-point eyespace into two eyes. The downside of Mogo's rule is that it wastes a *lot* of moves when it gener

[computer-go] Bulky nakade shapes (was: Mercy rule position)

2009-08-19 Thread Martin Mueller
Fuego has no trouble with the mercy rule here - I guess our threshold is high enough. However, it has no clue about how to play out the nakade shape. So it starts out with 57% wins for White, and it needs maybe 30K simulations until the search pushes it below 50%. Then the score keeps dropp

[computer-go] Laziness

2009-08-19 Thread Brian Sheppard
Speaking of laziness, I have been intending to post a study concerning capturing races, but I haven't gotten around to it. So is it surprising that MC is lazy, given that MC programmers are lazy? :-) Ingo's Double Step Race is a simplified model of capturing race. My model was more complex, and I

[computer-go] Dynamic komi

2009-08-19 Thread Ingo Althöfer
Don wrote: > But how do you create the required tension in a way that > produces a program that plays the game better? At least in high handicap go on 19x19 (with the "dynamic bot" being the stronger player) it seems to work when the bot is kept in some 35-45 % corridor, as long as it is clearly

Re: [computer-go] (no subject)

2009-08-19 Thread Don Dailey
> > PS: Once again I would like to mention my report on "Laziness of Monte > Carlo", at http://www.althofer.de/mc-laziness.pdf > In the meantime, a student has found the same phenomenon in UCT search > (instead of basic MC). Also in discrete online optimization (so outside > of combinatorial games

Re: [computer-go] Dynamic komi at high handicaps

2009-08-19 Thread Don Dailey
2009/8/19 terry mcintyre > Consider the game when computer is black, with 7 stones against a very > strong human opponent. > > Computer thinks every move is a winning move; it plays randomly; a > half-point win is as good as a 70-point win. > > Pro gains ground as computer makes "slack moves", ta

[computer-go] (no subject)

2009-08-19 Thread Ingo Althöfer
Jeff Nowakowski wrote: >On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 07:27:00AM -0700, terry mcintyre wrote: >>Consider the game when computer is black, with 7 stones against a very >>strong human opponent. >> ... > > Didn't this game actually happen? Didn't MoGo *beat* a pro > with 7 stones? It was long ag

Re: [computer-go] Dynamic komi at high handicaps

2009-08-19 Thread steve uurtamo
zen wins many more of its "even" games with no handicap than it does with even, say, an even 2 stone handicap as either black or white. i haven't compiled numbers for it (i'm not zen's maintainer), but i watched it happen over the course of about 50 games one day. it was pretty consistently worse

Re: [computer-go] Dynamic komi at high handicaps

2009-08-19 Thread Jeff Nowakowski
On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 07:27:00AM -0700, terry mcintyre wrote: >Consider the game when computer is black, with 7 stones against a very >strong human opponent. > >Computer thinks every move is a winning move; it plays randomly; a >half-point win is as good as a 70-point win. Didn'

Re: [computer-go] Dynamic komi at high handicaps

2009-08-19 Thread Don Dailey
On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 9:39 AM, Magnus Persson wrote: > Don, what you write is certainly true for even games, but I think the > problem is a real one in high handicap games with the computer as white. I > use a hack to make Valkyria continue playing the opening in handicap games > as white. It is

Re: [computer-go] Dynamic komi at high handicaps

2009-08-19 Thread terry mcintyre
Consider the game when computer is black, with 7 stones against a very strong human opponent. Computer thinks every move is a winning move; it plays randomly; a half-point win is as good as a 70-point win. Pro gains ground as computer makes "slack moves", taking slightly less than its full du

Re: [computer-go] Dynamic komi at high handicaps

2009-08-19 Thread Magnus Persson
Don, what you write is certainly true for even games, but I think the problem is a real one in high handicap games with the computer as white. I use a hack to make Valkyria continue playing the opening in handicap games as white. It is forbidden to resign in the opening and early middle gam

Re: [computer-go] Dynamic komi at high handicaps

2009-08-19 Thread Don Dailey
One must decide if the goal is to improve the program or to improve it's playing behavior when it's in a dead won or dead lost positions. It's my belief that you can probably cannot improve the playing strength soley with komi manipulation, but at a slight decrease in playing strength you can pro

[computer-go] Human vs Computer in IEEE conference

2009-08-19 Thread Ingo Althöfer
Forthcoming human-vs-computer games in go: http://www.althofer.de/ieee-go-0.jpg http://www.althofer.de/ieee-go-1.jpg http://www.althofer.de/ieee-go-2.jpg http://www.althofer.de/ieee-go-3.jpg http://oase.nutn.edu.tw/FUZZ_IEEE_2009/result.htm Ingo. -- GRATIS für alle GMX-Mitglieder: Die maxdome M

Re: [computer-go] Dynamic komi at high handicaps

2009-08-19 Thread Stefan Kaitschick
One last rumination on dynamic komi: The main objection against introducing dynamic komi is that it ignores the true goal of winning by half a point. The power of the win/loss step function as scoring function underscores the validity of this critique. And yet, the current behaviour of mc bots,