Nihon Ki-in announce World Go Championship including Zen AI

[pookpooi]

Finally a human translated news.
http://m.yicaiglobal.com/news/5179717.html

[Bonobo]

Finally a human translated news.
http://m.yicaiglobal.com/news/5179717.html

Thanks again, pookpooi!

Apparently the human translation is somewhat flawed … from the comments to my Facebook share of this article:

I have the original source. The translation is not accurate. Ke Jie is not playing Zen, because his calendar is very full in December, so no time for the qualifier. The Chinese representative will be selected from Chinese rank 2 - 7 + Tang Weixing, Fan Tingyu in a qualifying match in December, to play Zen next March.

Also, "Cannot beat AlphaGo" is from an interview after the Samsung Cup Final. Ke Jie mainly wanted to emphasize that he is not playing at his best in the final after narrowly defeating Tuo Jiaxi, and says "if he keeps playing like this, he cannot beat AlphaGo".

[hokusai]

The difference between bot and human is probably not that little.

I recall that upon a question Fujisawa Shuko once expressed his wish to play go against God and said that 2 stone handicap would be probably enough for an even match. Taking his meaning -under his assumption- it can be concluded that AI will never be able to surpass top human player by giving him 2 stones. Today human #1 Ke Jie seems to be daunted by AlphaGo. There shouldn't be even a 1 stone difference between them but comparing Ke's recent humble approach to the self-reliant one at several months ago I wonder what made him change his mind actually?

[idontgetit]

i think go players underestimate the difference between them and perfect play, while programmers and non-goplayers overestimate the difference.

I think AlphaGo can likely give Ke Jie 2 stones now with a decent chance (say 40%+). But It probably won't be able to give more than 3 stones, ever.

However, even if a player is just 1 point worse than perfect play, he'll lose 100% of the time. At their level, a small difference could mean a huge ELO/winrate difference.

[Uberdude]

Ke Jie CLAIMS that he has no more pressure now that he won the samsung cup, because the agon kiriyama game doesn't really matter, if he loses, he'll just be contributing to the friendship between China/Japan (:D)

Ke Jie beat Kono Rin in the Japan-China Agon cup. It felt rather more difficult for him than I expected with his aggressive amashi strategy but he won by resign after doing better in the first bit of fighting you could say he was on the front foot.

[John Fairbairn]

aggressive amashi

An oxymoron, surely? Amashi is rope-a-dope (i.e. on the back foot, not the front).

[Uberdude]

aggressive amashi

An oxymoron, surely? Amashi is rope-a-dope (i.e. on the back foot, not the front).

I don't mean aggressive as in trying to kill the opponent's stones, I mean it in terms of being active and earnest in taking away the opponent's territory. He was thus on the back foot and being attacked for most of the game. But then near the end there was finally a fight with some weak stones of Kono and he switched from back to front foot and delivered the winning punch.

[idontgetit]

The reason it felt more difficult for him than you expected is because he misread the right side. He thought it was supposed to be a seki, not ko. He said he had a really good position, until the ko happened, and it was like going straight from heaven to hell. If Kono Rin made ko threats against the bottom instead of the top, Ke Jie would be in a very bad position. But luckily for Ke jie, Kono Rin played at the top and couldn't kill Ke Jie's group

[pookpooi]

Will we ever see the result of qualification round of both Korea and China?
I cheer for Mi Yuting and Shin Jinseo, both are hottest rising star right now.
Also, Zen's progress seems stagnate at this moment, so it'll probably won't win, but will give an exciting match nonetheless.

[xiayun]

It's official: Mi Yuting for China and Park Junghwan for Korea.

[pookpooi]

Very nice choice, it's the second best choice out there. But Lunar CCTV New Year cup have the first best choice.
Anyway, Zen needs to be two stones stronger, but the progress right now it'll be just one stone stronger. Can it provide enough challenge for top pro?

[hyperpape]

Records:

Iyama Yuta - Park Junghwan: 2-1
Iyama Yuta - Mi Yuting: 1-0
Mi Yuting - Park Junghwan: 3-4

Edit: Corrected Iyama's record vs Mi.

[kimidori]

Iyama Yuta - Park Junghwan: 2-1
Iyama Yuta - Mi Yuting: 0-1
Mi Yuting - Park Junghwan: 3-4

The record in official match between Iyama and Mi Yuting should be 1-0 for Iyama, it was the game from the Nongshim Cup 2 years ago. But Iyama did mention before that game that he lost many games against Mi Yuting on the internet.

Look like Iyama and Park will have many games together in the next few months, CCTV, WGC, and also the Nongshim Cup.