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

What the hell?

[Anonymous Coward]

If someone bothered to read the linked article you would find that it was solved in October 2002. Just a tad out of date, wouldn't you say?

You would expect 20x20 to be solved by now...

Not "one quarter"

[Anonymous Coward]

5x5 go is NOT one-quarter of the Go board.
If I remember correctly, a Go board is 20x20,
so 5x5 is ONE-SIXTEENTH of the entire board.

Just as 2x2 is ONE-SIXTEENTH of an entire 8x8
chess board.

Re:What the fuck?

[castrox]

Although put in a silly language, the parent does have a point. :-\

Re:If we solve Go, will it still be fun?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think there is any danger of that happening any time soon. This is just a solution to a very tiny portion of a normal Go board (it's not 1/4th or whatever they said).

Go has a huge problem space and no computer program is even close to competing with humans.

Re:If we solve Go, will it still be fun?

[colmore]

We also aren't going to solve Go. We'll solve Chess first, and we aren't going to solve Chess either.

19x19 is exponentially more complicated than 5x5, and it's a really big exponent.