[computer-go] Re: Should 9x9 komi be 8.0 ?]

[Christoph Birk]

On Sun, 2 Mar 2008, Don Dailey wrote:
> My feeling is that in lost positions,  the only thing we are trying to
> accomplish is to make the moves more cosmetically appealing (normal) and
> at best improve the programs chances of winning against weak players.
> After all, if the program is in bad shape,   then to be completely
> realistic it's probably going to lose to the player that put it in this
> bad shape.

I think you are wrong here.
If there are two lines of play from the viewpoint of the MC program:
  a) leads to a 0.5 pt loss
  b) may win if the opponent makes a stupid (!) mistake, but otherwise
     leads to a bigger loss.

It is generally better to play for the 0.5 point loss as the oppoenent
may make a end-game mistake and loses 1 point.
But naive MC programs typically go for (b) which will lead to a
devastating loss because the opponent usually does not make the 10 point
mistake, but may have made the 1 point mistake.

Christoph