X-Message-Number: 8478
From: Andre Robatino <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #8474 - #8475
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 97 10:54:48 EDT

> Message #8475
> Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 22:54:37 -0700 (PDT)
> From: John K Clark <>
> Subject: Computers and games
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> 
> When a computer became the world Chess champion a few months ago the 

> apologists for biological brains were saying there were plenty of other games
> where humans still had a commanding lead, the two most common examples given 
> were Go and Othello. Last week a computer beat Takeshi Murakami, the world 
> Othello champion, 6 games in a row. Any bets on how long Go will hold out?
>      
  From what I remember reading, the last time the human Othello world
champion competed and won against a computer was in 1980, and computers have
been regularly beating human experts for a long time (in competitions on the
Net, they would remain anonymous to avoid embarrassment).  So the outcome was
not surprising.  So far, Go programs have not gotten past the human Novice
level.  The standard search tree method is unsuitable for this game, and new
ideas will be needed for a dramatic improvement.  On the other hand, not a lot
of effort has gone into Go programming to date.  I give it about 10 years.

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