My (string of lost) games against a 1D computer program

[tekesta]

Hello again and sorry for having been away so long.

Lately I have decided to get my Go experience playing against computer opponents, in the event that human opponents are hard to find. I learned that computers nowadays are programmed to play in a style typical of a human player of X rank. A program rated at 5k will play moves typical of a 5k human player, a 1-dan rated program will play moves typical of a human shodan, and so on. So I think that I will not pick up too many bad habits playing against a computer.

Just today I played a total of 11 games, one against "NeuGoEcho" and the other 10 against "NeuGoDelta". Both of these programs are about 1 dan in strength. Below are two of the aforementioned games. For comparison's sake I have included a game against "mfgo12kyu1", a computer program rated at 12 kyu. You will notice that my opening play was rather timid; I have yet to get accustomed to the hyper-aggressive fuseki of these programs.

Too bad the games were marked as "free", for I would've been able to get proper handicap and so had a chance at victory had the games been rated.

[Mike Novack]

Something you should know. MFOG 12 is using a combination of a knowledge based AI (select a set of plausible moves, each with a "go reason" behind them) and then at the HIGHER levels using MCTS to evaluate which of these is the est << but at the lower levels, a knowledge based AI >>

I am pretty sure that at the 12 kyu level, MFOG 12 isn't using MCTS at all. << in the days before anybody was using MCTS, MFOG 11 was at about 6 kyu just using it's knowledge based AI >> Fotland may have changed this more recently, but AFAIK only the 1 dan and 3 kyu levels of MFOG 12 use MCTS.

It is clear that is you want to play against MFOG you need to have it at a higher level than 12 kyu.

[tekesta]

I am aware that mfog12kyu will play only at 12-kyu level.

What I really want is for someone to review my games against NeuGo programs Delta and Echo, which I believe to be rated at amateur shodan level.

[DrStraw]

My guess is that your play against the computer is at about a 6-8 kyu level. Perhaps it would be better to play some handicap games and show us those.

[Mike Novack]

You could also (assuming you wanted to be playing against MFOG) choose a bot running that at a higher level. I don't know what the player names would be (I used to) but perhaps somebody else here knows.

[tekesta]

My guess is that your play against the computer is at about a 6-8 kyu level. Perhaps it would be better to play some handicap games and show us those.

Well, I have this 9-stone game against Leela that I played a couple of nights ago.