Man vs. Computer

It took almost a half century of development for computer chess programs to reach and top the level of the strongest human players, with a specially built IBM supercomputer beating then world champion Gary Kasparov in 1996. In the end, the decisive factor was not software but increasing hardware speed. Computer processing power has continued to increase, and quite modestly priced computer chess programs running on personal computers can now thrash world champions.

The world's other premier intellectual game, Go, has proven a tougher nut to crack. When IBM's Deep Blue was beating Kasparov, the world's strongest Go programs were still getting huge handicaps (11 stones) from strong amateur children and losing. That's not quite the case any more - they now occasionally beat strong professionals at slightly more modest handicaps (7 stones).

I recently purchased a new copy of The Many Faces of Go 12, one of the strongest computer go programs, and I have the impression that it has now reached the point where it can sometimes offer useful advice to a fairly weak amateur* like myself.

Once upon a time one could not hope to become a master chess player unless you lived in New York, Moscow, or one of a very few other chess capitals. Computer chess has made that obsolete - now all you need is program, laptop, and electricity to give you grandmaster opponents whenever you want. For go, though, that time is still seemingly far in the future. Of course you can play on the internet.

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