I am completely unqualified to talk about anything go-related, but still chess fans might relate to this news. In the first game of the match between AlphaGo (Google’s deep neural network-based AI) and Lee Sedol (generally considered the strongest go player in the world), the computer won by resignation. The commentary I read suggested that Sedol had played a little bit unorthodoxly in the opening, had managed to come back to a roughly equal position, but then made a mistake and got ground down in the endgame.
So many parallels to Deep Blue versus Kasparov, and also a few differences.
- Kasparov lost his first game in the 1996 match, but came back to win the match, 4-2. If anything, coming back is easier in go because there are no draws. (Draws, or jigo, are ultra-rare anyway, and ruled out by the match rules concerning komi … see below.) Will we see a repeat?
- On the other hand, Kasparov lost the second match in 1997 in part because he played very uncharacteristic openings, especially his disastrous Caro-Kann in game six. I hope that Lee Sedol will realize that there is nothing to be gained by departing from what he is comfortable with.
- The shock of go players is very reminiscent of 1996 and 1997. Sedol said in interviews afterwards that he was completely taken aback by the computer’s strength. Even when he was behind, he still thought he was going to win, but the computer absolutely gave him no opportunities.
- A big difference is the respect of both sides for each other. At least in their public statements. Instead of Kasparov’s bitter complaining that somebody must have been giving the computer moves behind the scenes, we have Sedol congratulating the programmers on their great accomplishment.
- For any go experts out there: is the komi too much? This is the margin that the Black player (who goes first) has to win by. From what I read, typical komi range from 4.5 points to 7.5 points. This match is at the high end, with 7.5 points. Sedol was actually ahead on the board and would have probably won by 2 to 5 points, but resigned because he could not see any way to win by 8 points. This is troubling, because Sedol will play three games with Black, while AlphaGo is only playing two. The komi is supposed to even the playing field, but if it’s too high then it has just skewed the playing field in favor of AlphaGo.
Anyway, it’s fascinating to re-live history, and it will be interesting to see what the other four games have in store!
By the way, if anybody wants to read my pre-match article about the Lee Sedol – AlphaGo match, you can find it here. I was pleased to hear that it is currently the most-read story on the Science magazine website!
P.S. The editors’ decision to capitalize “Go” throughout the article is a little bit unorthodox. It’s unfortunate that the name of the game is such a common English word. I guess it’s too late to start calling it “baduk” (the Korean name) or “weiqi” (the Chinese name).
