Computer Cracks 5x5 Go

gustgr writes "The American Go Association is reporting that Go for the 5x5 board has been solved by the computer program MIGOS, reports the program's creator, Erik Van Der Werk, a professor at the University of Maastricht in Holland. At about a quarter of the full-board version, 5x5 go is miniscule, similar in scale to "solving" 2X2 chess. The fact that a programmer would even consider this a noteworthy challenge is itself a remarkable testament to the game's complexity. Van Der Werk's approach is described in detail in an article at the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NOSR)."

Comments

October 2002

[fembots]

From the friendly article:

Subject: computer-go: 5x5 Go is solved
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 15:27:04 -0100
From: Erik van der Werf
To: COMPUTER GO MAILING LIST

The fact that an editor would even consider this a newsworthy article is itself a remarkable testament to the site's simplicity.

Funny how the stock market crashed the day before 5X5 Go is solved.

Re:October 2002

[Xzzy]

Sometimes I wonder if there's some secret society of geeks that scour geekly websites for neat stuff, who's only flaw is being several years old.

They make a contest of it.. whoever gets an old geek story posted on slashdot, wins the round.

It's such an obvious sport to invent, considering all the heckling slashdot editors recieve. I'm not quite prepared to accept that so many old stories get submitted out of ignorance.

Someone, somewhere, is toasting themselves to a beer right about now.

GREAT SCOTT!

[agildehaus]

Marty, this story once mattered, back in 2002, when it happened.

2002?

[porcupine8]

What is this, Classic Slashdot? Next do we get a story on the impending end of the dot-com bubble?

In Other News

[froodiantherapy]

Sony has released a new devixe, tentatively dubbed the "CD Burner," capable of burning the first second of any of your music CDs! Programmers hope some day to move to the entire first track.

Re:What the hell?

[mikael]

I heard rumours that there was a solution for "Tic-Tac-Toe" very close to being announced. The only hold up is finding a large enough
distributed network to explore all paths in real-time.

Re:2X2 Chess?

[nacturation]

But what if it's 2x2 chess with all knights?

Re:Some slashdot lore.

[Deadstick]

It's only a quarter sized if you only measure linearally, rather than spacially.

Arm yourself against spelling flames first, Grasshopper. Only then will your math flames stand up to the foe.

rj

Re:Uh...

[Ayaress]

Actually, the fact that Go only has two pieces is why it's so much more complex. Chess pieces individual behavior is what usually limits the number of moves in Chess. Also, since Chess doesn't easily scale down, 2x2 chess doesn't work: QK QK Neither side can move, since any move they make still leaves their king in check. I guess that means that White looses by default, since White goes first and can't make a legal move. Unless you play by rules like with blitz and don't count check, only actually capturing the king, in which case White always wins (unless he's REALLY dumb).

hypertext

[morcheeba]

I hear they are working on a "hypertext" transfer protocol -- it's kindof like Apple's hypercard where you can "link" to various media in a free-form manner. A "mouse" is used to select which links to follow, and the transport protocol sends the appropriate network packets to retrieve the data.