[computer-go] 9x9 games wanted and the next big challenge

[David Fotland]

> 
> I also agree that 9x9 doesn't compare to 19x19.   I disagree that it's
> not interesting.   It would be uninteresting if, for instance, someone
> like you were just as good at the top pro's at 9x9.   It stops being
> interested when it can be "mastered."    If the top players can always
> play a perfect game, it's not interesting to them, but 
> probably still interesting to me, and to a lesser extent 
> someone like you who would probably be playing close to perfect if the
> pro's were playing perfect.   There would probably be very little
> difference in someone like you and a top pro and if you 
> played a game well enough you might get some wins if you were 
> on the right side of
> komi.  But this all assumes the game is almost played out.   I don't
> think 9x9 is.

I don't mean that 9x9 is trivial.  It's just not very interesting to play
for someone who plays go.

For example, if I started talking about playing chess on a 6x6 board without
rooks and with only 6 pawns, it would still be a nontrivial game, but it's
not a game that serious chess players would want to play much.  If I put up
a server to play this 6x6 chess variant and got a lot of programmers
interested in writing programs for it, it's still nontrival, but still not
very interesting for chess players.  It's a different game.

David