[computer-go] creating a "random" position

[Erik van der Werf]

On 7/9/07, Gunnar Farnebäck <gunnar at lysator.liu.se> wrote:
> Erik wrote:
> > Sure, but that does not necessarily matter because there are many more
> > end- than middle-game positions. The reason I brought it up is that I
> > remembered a statement by someone (sorry forgot the source, maybe John
> > or Gunnar remembers) that from all legal positions nearly all can be
> > considered final. Of course one could argue about what makes a
> > position final, obviously not all borders will be nicely closed and
> > generally there will still be some points to be gained, but I think
> > the main idea was that at that point the winner is relatively easy to
> > determine (so one side would normally resign). This also makes sense
> > if you simply look at the expected number of stones on the board.
>
> I don't remember that statement. My guess, without trying it out, is
> that most legal positions are rather unsettled and that the number of
> positions that are final in any strong sense is a tiny fraction of the
> legal positions.

Ok, then probably I'm mistaken and read it in a different context.  In
any case, my statement should be relatively easy to falsify; just
generate some positions and count the fraction that is easily solved.
If correct, a decent uct search, or maybe even a traditional solver,
would in most cases quickly converge to an extreme probability of
winning.

Erik