Boardgame GO?

[Urban Ranger]

How to crush the computer

Just allow me to gloat a bit - yeah I know it is at the lowest setting, I can't seem to move it up. :/

[Drake Tungsten]

Nice job, UR.

32 to 3? Am I scoring it right? I would need to know the number of captured stones, of course, but all the groups on the board look alive...

[War4ever]

ok i have played this before, but its all confusing, i don't understand the scorring from that picture?????

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Nice job, UR.

32 to 3? Am I scoring it right? I would need to know the number of captured stones, of course, but all the groups on the board look alive...

Something like that. Of course it's on a 9x9 grid and a 4 stone handicap in favour of me, so that's nothing to be proud of . I have played a couple of games and I am up to 15 Kyu - that's how it adjusts the rating, by wins and loses.

The funnest one (I didn't capture the screen) was one where it surrendered after a couple of moves, leaving me with the entire board.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by War4ever
ok i have played this before, but its all confusing, i don't understand the scorring from that picture?????

First, you count number of cross intersections each side has. In the picture, all groups are "live," so you just count the intersections within each group. Then you count the number of stones you have captured. These are used to fill in territories, i.e., subtract from what each player has.

That's it. Nothing to it.

[Urban Ranger]

This is even better

The computer player has nothing

[Mark_Everson]

Hi All:

I played a fair amount of go about 15 years ago, and have recently returned to the game. So I have handy some Go resources for those who are interested. First there's


Sensei's Go Library of which this is the keywords page. So for info on openings you can follow the link up top, and then follow the link therein for info on the 3,3 point and its use in the opening. Its for securing the corner, as has been said above. Another really good set of references, though expensive, is the "Elementary Go Series" from ishi press. Its like 8 volumes and covers openings, attack and defese strategy, living shapes (how to ensure you can guarantee two eyes if attacked) and lots more. I expect you can get the volumes separately. The first volume on the opening is particularly good. I'm not certain its still in print, but its likely it is. Addr. for Ishi is in the screen igowin puts up at the end asking you to buy the full version.

There's also a fairly good go room at the MS zone here. Though when you don't know what you're doing, I think igowin is pretty good for simple tactics. Some people there don't know english, so if you want to learn, explain that, and make sure you get someone who's willing to give you pointers. It may take a bit of hanging around to find someone that fits the bill. . .

I'm not particularly good, but I'm not a novice either. Maybe 7 or 8 kyu. Don't believe the rankings from igowin, I can sometimes get it to say I'm about 10 levels better (about 10 stones worth of handicap on a 19x19 board) with that! Is anyone around here about 7K? Maybe we could put together a game sometime.

Cya,

Mark

[Urban Ranger]

Long long time ago when I had human opponents to play against, I was somewhere around 7k or a bit higher. Now I am pretty rusty though I don't mind setting up a game some time. Just let me wash my arse first

Yeah igowin is pretty good at tactics (but not all the time, see above ) but completely suck at strategy. You can keep beating it by avoiding "knife fights" and just surround territory.

[Kc7mxo]

Heh, my old roomate and I used to play Go in our neural networks class.

[Mark_Everson]

Hey UR, happy to play sometime. Why don't we wait till you can get up to about 3K on igowin though, so you're not too rusty. Just let me know when you're ready!

Cya,

Mark

[Urban Ranger]

Got cha.

[Mark_Everson]

Lookin' forward to it! See you in a week or whatever.

[self biased]

i've been told that the corners are less important on the smaller boards, as there isn't enough territory to capture as the center of the board.

i've been playing go for a few years now, but only sporadically. at my best i was only about 15k. i've probably backslid alot since then.

[Urban Ranger]

Just like chess, you really do need to hit the books (or websites in this day and age) to keep going. Smaller boards are harder in some ways, since if you goof up once it is a lot tougher to recover.