I have received a query about Go in Port Elizabeth. The last information I had (many years ago) was that Patrick Lee was available to play there. However, the number I have for him seems to be outdated. Does anyone have contact details for Patrick, or know of any Go players or activity in or near Port Elizabeth?
Posted by Steve as General at 6:33 PM, No Comments »
Following up on a suspicion that handicap games tend to favour white rather more than one would expect, I analysed the historical SA results.
The dataset is not completely up to date, but it’s quite recent. In this dataset, there are 2333 recorded even games, of which white won 1201, a not surprising 51.5%. There are also 2445 recorded uneven games (at the correct handicap), of which white won 1228, a remarkably level 50.2%.
Breaking it down further, there are 1660 games with a handicap of 3 stones or more, of which white won 800 (48.2%).
This is not an enormous dataset, but I think it’s big enough to conclude with a high level of confidence that in fact handicap games don’t favour white (or black), and that we can confidently continue to use them for ranking purposes.
Posted by Chris Welsh as General, Rank Changes at 5:00 PM, 6 Comments »
Guru-guru mawashi or spiral ladder, a nifty tesuji that is actually a combination of tesuji’s, namely a stone sacrifice, squeeze and ladder. Those of you with gobase accounts can see an example here
And no, this is not a regular series, just an excuse to point out what must be the best named tesuji ever.
Posted by Chris Welsh as General at 7:19 PM, No Comments »
Steve Kroon is starting a research project in developing computer Go using AI and machine learning techniques. Limited funding for Masters and PhD students is available. If you’re interested in getting involved in a project like this, please contact Steve. More details in this document.
Posted by Steve as General, News at 10:17 AM, No Comments »
For those interested in computer programs for board games: read about the latest groundbreaking result here and here.
Presumably it will still be a long time before this happens to go…
Posted by konrad as General at 12:48 AM, No Comments »
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