Re: [gnugo-devel] Gifu results

[Heikki Levanto]

On Sun, Oct 30, 2005 at 12:06:09PM -0500, Adrian Petrescu wrote:
> I don't mean to be disrespectful, I just am wondering how the same 
> program can beat one 1-kyu and lose a 9-stone game against another.

One of the reasons might be that humans tend to learn the strengths and
weaknesses of a program, while the program tends to stay exactly the
same from game to game. Thus the apparent strength of the program
decreses over the time a person plays against it.  So, a 1-kyu who meets
the program for the first time can get a few nasty sruprises from good
tactical reading, but a 1-kyu who has played a number of games, probably
with increasing handicaps, can end up beating the same program with nine
stones.

Also, there can be a question of style, if the programs style wouldbe
biased (say) for overly aggressive attacks, it would be stronger against
some people, and weaker against others. Again, a human would learn to
recognize such, and play accordingly, and getting better and better
results against the program.


I make no claims that this is what has happened, since I haven't even
seen the games, nor ever played agains Many Faces. But it is a
possibility.

-H



-- 
Heikki Levanto   "In Murphy We Turst"     heikki (at) lsd (dot) dk