endgame (Was [computer-go] Re: Should 9x9 komi be 8.0 ?])

[Magnus Persson]

Quoting steve uurtamo <uurtamo at gmail.com>:

> the thing that got me thinking about this is that i've never seen an MC
> player really play out a ko fight.  (or perhaps they are in their own cryptic
> MC way that i can't see).

It takes two to dance a Tango! For example ko fights on 9x9 occur late  
in the game so often the ko does not matter and both programs know it.  
Or both programs knows who is going to win the fight and the losing  
program will try to do something else.

In other words: If a human player plays the losing side I think most  
strong MC-programs will play correctly if the ko-fight is necessary to  
win.

Of course as always this depends on how deep the program searches and  
the complexity of the situation. But in my experience ko fights is not  
a special weakness of MC-programs it is just one of many kinds of  
tactical complexity that the tree-part search has to deal with.

Still it is an interesting question if there are some good simple  
tricks one can use in the playouts to make the program play even  
stronger in ko fights.

-Magnus