Apes playing Go/Weiqi/Baduk

[Ian Butler]

Many studies have already been published about the intelligence of different kinds of apes.
A general agreement seems to be that several of those (like the Chimpanzee) have the ability to learn a vast array of skills, like human language (obviously not the speech part, but word recognition etc)...

Now that makes me wonder.
Could he learn to play Go?

Only one way to find out... Who has an intelligent ape laying around and a 9x9 Go board?

Or do you reckon 5x5 is better to start for an ape?

Additional thoughts on ape-instruction
- Let him watch a lot of games on small board. Not especially high level games, just games so he can get sense of the few rules there are.
- Let him play a human player who knows the rules and will take a stone off the board when completely surrounded. If the ape surrounds a stone, point to it.
- That is, assuming the ape will respect the simplest of rules: place a stone on the crossing of 2 lines. If he can't do that, I guess he officially can't play Go. However, we can stimulate this by making dents in the board so the stones fit nicely. Or magnetic stones so they will only lay on the right places.
- Give the ape 1001 Life and Death Problems. After he's finished, his stomach will be filled with Go-wisdom

Though seriously, I think this should be a real study!

[Kirby]

Maybe our good friend, Bonobo, from L19 can help us out with your experiment.

[Baywa]

Maybe our good friend, Bonobo, from L19 can help us out with your experiment.

Cheap shot! However - apes have some extraordinary, even super-human mental skills in memorization, pattern recognition.

[Mike Novack]

We already know that SOME apes can play go. I guess the question here was about members of one of the other species of ape being able to do so.

And as far as abilities go, "pattern recognition" is one of those things which we humans do not do better than either chimpanzees or bonobos.

[Uberdude]

Howeve - apes have some extraordinary, even super-human mental skills in memorization, pattern recognition.

e.g. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn ... mory-task/ (includes video)

[Matti]

Once we visited Ermitaž before start of a Go tournament we saw there a small statue "Three monkeys playing go".

[John Fairbairn]

Been done.

From the GoGoD Encyclopaedia:

Albino apes have apparently been recorded by zoologists. Today they would be subjects of scientific curiosity. In ancient times, it is easy to imagine, they would become the stuff of legend.
This story, recorded by Mo Langzi of the Qing dynasty in his Xihu Jiahua (Fine tales of the Western Lake), is set in the area of that famous lake, near Hangzhou.

There was a steep cliff, and below it a scholar's refuge, the Cold Spring Pavilion. Halfway up the cliff was a cave where lived an ape that could speak. It was a white ape. Now this was around the time when the emperor Xiao Zong of the Southern Song reigned (1162-94), and the time of the celebrated Buddhist monk Ji Gong. The monk, serving in Lingyin (now Lin'an) temple near Hangzhou, used to pass the mountain as he recited his scriptures to the beat of the wooden "fish", hollow wooden blocks knocked together three times.

When the ape heard the knocking, he would scamper down the hillside with a present of fruit for Ji Gong, and then they would play games together.

One day, the Prefect of Lin'an, Yuan Yuan, visited the temple and asked the abbot about the cave. He had heard that it housed a 1,000-year-old white ape that could play board games. Was this true? The abbot replied that the ape was indeed intelligent, and could communicate. The Prefect was a skilled chess and go player and naturally wanted to test the ape's skill for himself. So he and the abbot went to Cold Spring Pavilion, where they asked Ji Gong to summon the ape by knocking the fish clappers together.

The ape and the Prefect began with a game of xiangqi (Chinese chess). The Prefect deployed a Centre-file Cannon, while the ape set up a Screened Horses opening, implying "you are a general but I am an army." A chaotic battle ensued, but when the clouds dispersed the Prefect's king was trapped in his palace, facing checkmate.

Even so, the Prefect was not convinced the ape was truly intelligent. So he called for a go board. He started with the Large Corner opening, and again a very difficult game ensued. Towards the end it became apparent that the Prefect was about to lose by a single point. His face told its own story: "For twenty years I have had no rival, but today I am about to lose to an ape. How low have I fallen!"

At this point Ji Gong decided to resume his chanting, and began a sutra about karma as he stroked the ape's head. The ape understood and contrived instead to lose by one point.
Whether you believe this was an ape or a white-haired hermit does not devalue the quality of the compassion shown.

[Elom]

Howeve - apes have some extraordinary, even super-human mental skills in memorization, pattern recognition.

e.g. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn ... mory-task/ (includes video)

It would have been nice to compare photographic memory in adolescent chimps with adolescent humans, if it becomes weaker with age .

But is that, then, the reason for reaching higher levels of go the younger you begin?