wilcox@inmet.UUCP (09/12/84)
Computer Competes with Humans at Go Tournament
For the first time in history, a computer program has played in
a human Go tournament. NEMESIS, the program, was entered into the U.S. Eastern
Championships held on September 1st and 2nd, 1984. Playing at a rating
of 20 kyu, the program succeeded in holding its own. NEMESIS is now
an officially rated member of the American Go Association.
NEMESIS was run on an IBM-PC. A full-sized go board was used, with
the moves relayed by a human intermediary to and from the computer. All
games were played with appropriate handicaps and 5.5 points of komi for
even games. Eight games were played with the following results:
NEMESIS' overall score: 3 wins 5 losses.
Opponent Rating Handicap Result Points Turn Comments
__________________________________________________________________
Rusher 16 kyu 4 stones loses 6 257
Frederick 10 kyu 10 stones wins 6 214
Gjessing 20 kyu Black loses ~100 288 resignation
Snell 20 kyu Black wins 52.5 236
Sivel 20 kyu White loses .5 271
Engelstein 13 kyu 7 stones wins ~100 156 resignation
Jessing 19 kyu White wins 22.5 254 even game
Kurtz 15 kyu 5 stones wins 6 243
NEMESIS is expected to enter next year's U.S. Eastern Tournament with a
rating between 15 kyu and 10 kyu.
NEMESIS is a commercially available program written in 'C' by Bruce
Wilcox. Questions regarding availability on machines of 16 bit or greater
addressing capability should be addressed to:
Bruce Wilcox 34 Oak Street Lexington, Ma. 02173 617-863-1454.