I was wondering if the following idea
for using GNU Go to help beginners improve would be feasible. Imagine a
beginner playing GNU Go a handicap game. Initially GNU Go's Score Predictor
will predict Black winning by a large margin. As the game proceeds and
the beginner makes mistakes, the predicted victory margin for Black will
drop and may at some point switch to predicted victory for White. Even
if these predictions are not necessarily completely accurate, the points
in the game where the prediction changes by a large amount seem likely
to correspond to mistakes made by the beginner. Some of these may correspond
to losing large blocks of stones, where the beginner may realize his mistake,
but others may be more stategic (e.g. failing to prevent a major territorial
expansion).
If GNU Go had a function which pointed
out the moments where the predicted score changed by a large amount (either
during or after the game), this might be very helpful for the beginner.
It might even be possible to add verbal explanations for some of the types
of mistakes.