[computer-go] .. if Monte-Carlo programs would play infinitestrong

[Don Dailey]

A good "devil" tries to win by MORE than he deserves and will
try to win in a losing position.

I have heard this terminology before and my understanding was 
that a devil still plays a perfect game,  he just tries to be
deceptive about it.

I don't see any point in not playing perfect if you can unless
you are happy to play non-optimally and don't mind the chance of
getting a lesser score than you are guaranteed.

One other issue, how much does the "devil" know about his opponent? 
That has everything to do with it.   You might use a much different 
strategy against one player than another.    

A good devil doesn't care - he will still play "perfect" while still
using  whatever tricks have a chance of working against any imperfect
opponent without compromising or taking chances.

- Don


On Mon, 2006-11-27 at 11:39 -0800, steve uurtamo wrote:
> > But a "god" will win over the
> > "devil", as he will not
> > fall in any of the traps, but can use the suboptimal
> > play spent in
> > setting those up.
> 
> actually, whomever is slated to win with perfect play
> (1st or 2nd player) will win, because "setting up
> traps" isn't necessarily inefficient -- it just
> means choosing branches where the number of
> winning moves for your opponent is minimized.  it
> is still optimal play.  either you start in a winning
> branch and you just play it out and win (even by
> choosing such branches, you're just playing a cleaner
> version of the same winning game), or you start
> in a losing branch and it doesn't matter what you do,
> you're going to lose.
> 
> s.
> 
> 
>  
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