[computer-go] To be done before using Japanese rules

[Jacques Basaldúa]

Hi

Today computer tournaments should be played under Chinese
as, I think, most agree. This is a thread about how could
Japanese rules be implemented.

Open question 1: I think dame has to be filled. Programs like
gnugo, even old versions, can to that in fractions of a second
per move. Filling dame requires almost no extra time and avoids
silly counting errors in things like:

· · · # O ·
· # # # O ·
· # · O(·)·     where (·) could be miscounted.

Open question 2: A public domain library should determine
what is alive and what is not. Even at the price of some
"missimplification". Today, programs like gnugo do that
well enough, perhaps only some sekis are misunderstood.
A group would be alive or dead under CGTR200x
(Computer Go Tournament Rules or whatever) and that would
be final and unambiguously determine the score. All programmers
would use the same public domain library as the tournament
directing program, so they would all agree.

Epilogue: If that was done some day, of course, there
would be people finding super complicated positions
for which the eval fails. But that doesn't change
anything and there is no need to rush with a new
version. Only every five years or so, after long
pondering, the next specification of the tournament
rules should come out. Any sport has (by orders
of magnitude) more referee errors than go and that
does not invalidate sport. The probability of recreating
a known error in a real game is close to zero if the
eval function is sound enough.


Jacques.