mwm@ucbopal.CC (I'll be mellow when I'm dead) (08/31/85)
There have been several queries about computer Go programs, Bruce Wilcox's work and the USENIX Go tournament. I'm going to recap what I recall of the tournament (yes, I was there), and in the process provide answers to some of the questions. The players: ogo, oog (Peter Langston) gorilla, goanna (?) Nemesis (Bruce Wilcox) Ogo just mirrors the opponents move, playing the center if it goes first. Oog is an improved version of ogo, algorithm unknown. Gorilla and Goanna are pattern-matching programs. They scan the board looking at NxN (N = 3? 4?) squares, and choose the "biggest" play. Nemesis is the continuation of the work of Bruce Wilcox already mentioned on the net. It is for sale, for most Unix boxes and PCs. Bruce is willing to work on ports to other systems. And no, I don't know how to get in touch with him. The standings: First: oog Second: Nemesis Third: Gorilla -\ Fourth: Goanna --- possibly reversed Fifth: ogo Note that Peter and (?) were at the meet, but Bruce wasn't. Nemesis was actually the strongest program, playing somewhere around 20 kyu. There is supposed to be a 15 kyu version in the works. Gorilla and Goanna were the fastest programs, but had the bad habit of filling in there own eyes (even if there were only two to fill!). This bad habit, as well as ogo's persistence in not passing, caused Nemesis to trip over an internal error (out of buffers, or some such) and drop core after about 300 moves. How do you score a game where one of the players goes catatonic? Oog was the second strongest player, being beaten only by Nemesis. The Oog-Nemesis games were the only ones that actually looked like Go games. There have been rumors that Oog was going to be posted to the net. Disclaimer: this is all from memory. Hopefully, someone who recorded the tournament will now correct my mistakes. <mike
morris@Shasta.ARPA (08/31/85)
Goanna was written by Bruce Ellis while he was at Bell Labs last summer.
Bruce's mail address is brucee%basser.OZ@seismo.css.gov, or
... !seismo!munnari!basser.oz!brucee. I believe he's still working on
go programs.
Kathy Morris
(morris@diablo.arpa
{decvax!decwrl | ucbvax | seismo}!Glacier!diablo!morris)