Zen team to hold press conference November 9

[Krama]

Right now Zen running on a single core is one stone stronger than that version running on dual core.

Single processor, surely. Are there any single core pc for sale anymore?

You can give n cores to any software. So even if you have octacore processor you could allow zen to only use 1 core.

[Gomoto]

I justed wanted to buy the english version of Zen 6 to start a Jubango Zen vs. Crazy. (Could not find a match of the recent commercial releases on a single desktop yet).

I will hold on for a few days and wait for the press conference.

[pookpooi]

Press conference livestream at http://sp.live.nicovideo.jp/i18ngate/lv280070975
14:00 Japan Time

[yoyoma]

They put up a webpage for the event: http://denou.jp/go

Using google translate, it's Cho Chikun vs Zen in a 3 game match, even games.
November 19, 20, and 23.

2 hours + 3x60s byoyomi

[pookpooi]

The time setting is basically the same as Lee Sedol vs. AlphaGo matches.
Cho Chikun is very reasonable choice because Zen's strength is not at the top pro yet, and Cho Chikun was once the world's top players for a very long time. His fame will definitely hype the match. Second favorite choice in this situation is Kobayashi Koichi.
Also, very nice choice of commentators.

[Uberdude]

Cho is also a good choice for his sabaki inside moyo skills: when Zen has some big moyo on KGS I will sometimes kibitz "someone call Cho Chikun", and now they did! I think the recent neural net Zen might not be as extreme moyo style as it used to be though. Looking forward to the match, do we know broadcast details?

[pookpooi]

There's rule in pdf file in that website, I poorly translated it by Google and all I get is that there'll be game 3 even if two previous games are won by one side.

[Uberdude]

It was only in March this year that Zen played Kobayashi Koichi on 3 stones, and won by 4.5 points, see http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewto ... 18&t=12906.

[Drew]

This will be fun! I hope playing against an AI doesn't prevent Cho from slamming down a stone or two!

[Krama]

I wanna know when will we have the chess engine equivalent of go software.

Like droidfish that is based of stockfish 8 can be downloaded on androids and on a current hardware it is at GM level if not stronger.

[Gomoto]

I love Cho Chikun. I would also like more commentaries from Cho with English subtitles. Great news for Zenith Go, will there be a new commercial version of Zen soon?

Crazy and Zen are playing on grandmaster level already. 6 Dan is around 2600 Elo.

I want my Cho Chikun deep learning edition of Zen Go now!

[John Fairbairn]

There's rule in pdf file in that website, I poorly translated it by Google and all I get is that there'll be game 3 even if two previous games are won by one side.

You're not missing much. It's mostly about regulations to do with handling the computer side, e.g. the computer will use its own internal clock, the handler will have extra time to make the moves physically; the human will use a chess clock) and possible disputes. Games 1 and 3 will feature nigiri and the ruleset will be Japanese (can Zen really cope with that?).

The fact that they have set out such a protocol gives an impression that this is being taken very seriously. But I see that Magnus Carlsen has apparently called in Microsoft for help in preventing Russian hackers finding out what opening preparation he has on his computer, so this will presumably be the way of things for go in the future.

Cho has been in reasonable form lately, only just missing out on another title, and is not normally the blundering type, and I imagine he's also been able to study some Zen games. But my sense of what is going on here is that Japan may be hoping to recover a little bit of national pride by having the first oriental program to do well against pros, so maybe a lot of people will be rooting for Zen in Japan.

[Satorian]

I want my Cho Chikun deep learning edition of Zen Go now!

To some extent he's actually already part of Zen6, which is the deep learning edition of Zen. Although I'm guessing the v12 Zen engine (as used in Zen19X) uses a value net in addition to the policy net the v11 engine in Zen6 has implemented at least.


Take a look at the cover: https://book.mynavi.jp/ec/products/detail/id=62646

[Bonobo]

Quoting Zen developer Hideki Kato, from his mail to the “computer-go” mailing list (2016-11-09, see http://computer-go.org/pipermail/comput ... 09612.html):

Set the first language of your web browser to English and access http://www.nicovideo.jp/.  You will be able to register (free) and will be able to watch the games.

The links to the games are
http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv280070012 (11/19, 12:30 PM JST),
http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv280070055 (11/20, ditto) and
http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv280070087 (11/23, ditto).
You can set (or reserve) "time shift" viewing, which allows you to watch later.

Rules: Japanese rules, 6.5 pts komi, 2 hours + 3 x 60 seconds byoyomi.  All three games will be played.

Hardware:
CPU: 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2699v4 (44 cores/2.2 GHz)
GPU: 4 x nVidia Titan X (Pascal)
RAM: 128GB

[pookpooi]

The hardware costs at least $15,000 (from that CPU+GPU+Ram info) and is the most powerful machine that Zen would ever use, comparable to the single machine version of AlphaGo. I don't know if AGA is also planning to livestream with English commentaries but I hope this time Michael Redmond would be a nice choice.