The man machine

[IanDavis]

I suppose this might interest some Londoners with time to fill in the gap between Christmas and New Year. the Go bet
Similiar to David Levy's bet, a Dutch Go player has wagered some money that no computer program can beat him. So if you're interested in artificial intelligence, as applied to board games, then this might be for you. It seems to be possible to go and watch the event for free, and I would imagine that there will be people present who are capable of explaining both what is happening on the board, and how the program works.

PS: I understand that an official page for the event should appear later, presumably linked from http://www.britgo.org/tournaments/2010/logc

[Alex Holowczak]

a Dutch Go player has wagered some money that no computer program can beat him

I'm surprised by this. I know that 9-dan players in the far East have lost to computers, the computers having either a 6-stone head-start or a really high komi. You'd think that a good computer would beat a 2-dan player easily...

Go is the last of the board games that humans can beat computers at; let's hope that remains the case!

[IanDavis]

a Dutch Go player has wagered some money that no computer program can beat him

I'm surprised by this. I know that 9-dan players in the far East have lost to computers, the computers having either a 6-stone head-start or a really high komi. You'd think that a good computer would beat a 2-dan player easily...

Go is the last of the board games that humans can beat computers at; let's hope that remains the case!

Possibly the most important match condition is the hardware limitation - from memory circa $5000. I believe that university supercomputers were in use for all games against professional players (For professional read GM level). The initial advantage gained by handicap is an interesting point. Computers are strong at the endgame, but often hopeless at the opening and middlegame. My money is on the machine, should I be able to place any.