2008 European Go Congress – Computer Go

Leksand, Switzerland

Wednesday August 6th 2008

On Wednesday August 6th, the second rest day of the main tournament, the 2008 European Go Congress included two Computer Go Tournaments: one 19×19 and one 9×9.

Both events were held on KGS, with the programs running on machines in the tournament venue in Leksand. PCs running Windows Vista were provided, and entrants were also permitted to bring their own hardware. However connections from remote links were not permitted (to prevent cheating). Entry was free, and there were cash prizes totalling €300, provided by Toshiba Tec Nordic AB.

The rules were Chinese, with 7.5 komi. The time limits were 30 minutes each sudden death for the 19×19 event, 15 minutes each sudden death for the 9×9.

Entrants who would not be present in person in Leksand were allowed to send their programs in, either to be operated by someone apponted by themselves, or in the expectation that the organiser would be able to find them an operator.

19×19 tournament

There were eight entrants:

The results, and the game records, are listed on the KGS pages on the event, which also offer all the game records. The cross-table is

 CSLMFvalG1stFuew2gbyesWinsSOSSoDOS
Crazy Stone +3+4+5+2+6 +1 61515
Leela-3 +2+4+6+1+5  51812
Many Faces of Go-4-2 +6+5 +3 +1  4198
valkyria-5-4-6 -1+2+3  2214
GNU Go-2-6-5 -3+1    +42212
First Go-6-1 -2  -4+3+52150
Fuego -5-1-3 +4 +2 2132
wei2go-1    -3-2  0100
In this table, + indicates a win, - a loss, and the number indicates in which round the game was played. GNU Go and Many Faces of Go played twice, Many Faces of Go winning both times.
The results are also available, with downloadable game records, from the KGS web site.

In round 1, wei2go tried to make an illegal move by playing a stone where it would have no liberty. It was unable to continue play when the server rejected this move, and eventually lost on time.

In round 2, wei2go again tried to play a stone where it would have no liberty, and again lost on time.

Crazy Stone vs Leela
The position after move 118, marked.
In round 3, wei2go again had a problem and eventually lost on time.
          Fuego suffered some problem which caused it too to stop playing and lose on time. To fix the problem and get it running again, its operator needed to reinstall Java onto its Unix system.
          The game between Crazy Stone and Leela had an eccentric fuseki, typical of MC programs. However the standard of play was high, and this was the game that decided the eventual winner. SGF
          My reason for showing this move is because it surprises me. White needs to save the three stones that are in atari, and this move certainly saves them; but so does a capture of the five black stones. Any human player would prefer the capture to the atari; weak players because they like to get prisoners into their lid, and strong players because they like to reduce the aji of the dead black group. Of course, we should not expect a MC program like Crazy Stone to prefer the capture just because humans prefer it; but I would have guessed that it would prefer the capture because once those five stones are captured, they are never going to come back to life in a roll-out, whereas the connection leaves them with some probability of coming back to life again.

First Go vs FueGo
The position after move 150, marked.
Wei2go was not launched again in time for round 4, so there were now only seven players. GNU Go received the bye.
          The game between First Go and Fuego was entertaining, with misread ladders, as seen in the figure to the left. In the position shown, White has already chased one ladder which it could not capture; and now it is doing it again, alongside the first ladder. SGF

In round 5, First Go got the bye.
          Fuego again crashed and lost on time. This time its operator failed to get it running again in time for the next round.

In round 6, there were only six programs left, and no bye was needed.

The prizewinners, in order, were

1stCrazy Stone
2nd  Leela
3rdMany Faces of Go

They received cash prizes of €120, €60 and €20.


9×9 tournament

There were eight entrants:

The results, and the game records, are listed on the KGS pages on the event, which also offer all the game records. The cross-table is

 LCSvstvMFFue1stGWinsSOSSoDOS
Leela +2-3+4+5+141310
Crazy Stone-2 +4+3+1+54128
valkyria+3-4 -5+2+13147
Steenvreter-4+5 -1+3+23136
Many Faces of Go-3-2+1 +5+43114
Fuego-5-1-3 +4+22121
First Go-1-2-5-4 +31120
GNU Go-5-1-4-2-3 0130
In this table, + indicates a win, - a loss, and the number indicates in which round the game was played.
The results are also available, with downloadable game records, from the KGS web site.

The prizewinners, in order, were

1stLeela
2nd  CrazyStone

They received cash prizes of €75 and €25.

Leela vs Xiao Ai-Lin
The position after move 60, marked.
Next day, Leela, as winner of the 9×9 tournament played a demonstration game against Xiao Ai-Lin, a professional go player from Taiwan. This was a no-komi game, with Leela playing Black. The time limits were 15 minutes each sudden death. SGF

After 60 moves, the game reached the position shown to thje right. At this point, Leela had 141 seconds left and Xiao Ai-Lin had 29. The game is effectively over, and White has won. The black group on the right side is dead. The two groups at the bottom left have one eye each, and are both alive in seki, the ko there is irrelevant. The largest group of each colour is alive, with territory.

Played continued for another 18 moves, which did nothing to change the result, or the status of any of the groups. Now Leela had 115 seconds left, and Xiao Ai-Lin had 3. At this point the game was terminated, and declared a win for Xiao Ai-Lin.


Other computer Go Tournament results
computer-go.info