foxleapgames wrote:
My first question that perhaps someone could answer has to due with a trend in Go AI that I'd like to address:
I've noticed Pachi doesn't often pass when the game is clearly over. It tries a bunch of "stupid" testing moves that are easily thwarted before eventually giving up and passing. Is there some way to tweak the pass threshold, or a statistic I should look for in the genmove output that could signify that the AI doesn't have much hope for a move to be a positive score gain?
On the assumption that your targeted audience is that of beginners, I would not worry about requiring the bot to pass when the game is "clearly over". Beginners should keep playing until the game is clearly over
to them. They should also try stupid moves that are easily thwarted by experienced players and bots. They do not yet know when moves gain nothing or are "stupid". In fact, most players make mistakes at the end of the game (dame stage) until they are 5 kyu or better, a rank that beginners may take a couple of years to reach, if the actualy manage to do so. That is because some "stupid plays" are not actually stupid. Like the bots, beginners should play by area rules so that stupid plays or not passing is not penalized.
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My second question: What kind of learning experiences would you look for in a guided go learning software? Should beginners, after learning the rules, go straight into doing life and death problems, or learn basic joseki first? Let me know what you think.
Forget teaching beginners joseki. That has never been recomended for beginners, anyway. But now the bots have made many joseki obsolete. It has been like turning the clock ahead a couple of centuries. There is a book called
38 basic joseki. Maybe that number is now 10 or so. Beginners will pick up the joseki knowledge they need by playing and watching games.
As for educational material for beginners, I can't say. I don't know of any method that has been tested. As for myself, I made it to about AGA 4 kyu by playing against stronger players and reviewing my own games.