Life In 19x19

I decided to go with the 0.8" bamboo board from YMI with double convex yunzi stones. I just received the set and all the components are very beautiful. I look forward to playing on it and using it for problems or replaying games.

AlphaGo does not play for simplification in self-play, only against humans. My guess is that it tends to simplify when it thinks it is ahead, just like humans do. Anyway, versus humans its simplification does not seem to hurt.

Michael Redmond said something similar to what Bill is saying in the ...

I am looking to buy a board and stones. I was interested in this board some time ago but I see that GoGameGuru has closed its shop. I liked that it had a 9x9 board on the back. Let me know the board and stones you would recommend, as I don't have much experience with buying either.

I live in Canada ...

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/sep/14/truth-beauty-and-annihilation-a-life-in-chess

Touches on a lot of issues I wrestle with when playing Go. Here is a small excerpt:


...Desjarlais, though, doesn’t stop there. He examines this peculiar passion, the reasons we become ...

resigned...
stones in hand
empty board

BTW after this tweet during the press conference he changed his wording to emphasize the brilliance of Lee's wedge 78, and saying that AlphaGo got confused. I haven't seen calling AlphaGo's 79 a mistake since then. I think this is (good) PR spin by Hassabis who has consistently praised Lee ...

I just came across an article in Wired entitled The Sadness and Beauty of Watching Google’s AI Play Go - here is the link m

I found the part at the end about Fan Hui very interesting. He was able to improve his play from what he learned in the games against AlphaGo. I think that is encouraging ...

But this seems to have more strongly affected me, emotionally, somehow.

It may come from seeing Go as part of your identity, rather than simply a game that you enjoy. I am guessing this is more of a tendency in the West, where Go is a niche game still, and there can be a certain sense of pride in ...

Do not go gentle
into that third game. Rage, rage
against the machine

I would be more likely to want to play in person games if pro level computer software was widely available...oh, who I am kidding, I would probably be sitting in front of the computer taking a handicap from the pro level program and trying to learn something from my losses. On a serious note though ...

Well said. I think we can take comfort from the fact that chess is alive and well. The 100m sprint is still exciting at the top levels, even if a machine could be equipped with "legs" that could run faster than humans. Also, I think a lot of the satisfaction of games is being part of communities ...

Well, hopefully Go will never again be introduced as the magical game that not even computers can play well. Take you guys down a notch, better late than never. That's all I was saying

I for one would be glad if it isn't introduced that way. I didn't start playing for that reason. Although, it ...

Although I was disappointed that Lee lost, I have to say I am very excited for the second game. I hope he avoids overplays and plays how he would against a human player of his caliber. I am still hoping for Lee to win the rest of the games, even if I am excited to see what moves AlphaGo plays.

If they do a remake of Hikaru, Sai will be crying to play AlphaGo.

In a news article I saw Lee quoted as saying that AlphaGo played a move "I thought was almost impossible to play". Does anyone know which move he was referring to?
My guess is it was r10, the invasion on the right side. That impressed Sweetrip 9d on KGS (Andy Liu I think) who said something like ...