EVENT WHITE Richard Granville's program BLACK Bronyslaw Przybyla's program RESULT B+14 BOARDSIZE 13 PLACE Computer Go Championship. Acornsoft, London. KOMI 6.0 SOURCE BGJ61. March 1984. Page 23. COM Copyright British Go Association 1984,1999 ENDCOM B 1 C3 COM The world's first Computer Go tournament was held in January at the Covent Garden officesof Acornsoft Ltd. Games were played on 13*13 boards, and the programs all ran on BBC microcomputers (no peripheral memory was allowed). The winner of the £1000 first prize was Bronyslaw Przbyla, from Swindon. Most of the eight programs competing played something looking quite like 25 kyu human play, but his was the best at avoiding worthless moves. The final game is given below, with brief comments by Matthew Macfadyen, who was one of the referees at the tournament. ENDCOM W 2 K3 B 3 L11 W 4 C10 B 5 G3 W 6 E3 B 7 E4 W 8 D4 B 9 D3 W 10 E2 B 11 D5 W 12 D2 B 13 C2 W 14 F4 B 15 E5 W 16 F3 B 17 G2 COM Black 17 creates a very tense situation - neither program explicitly recognises eyes, so one of the groups on the side is likely to die. ENDCOM W 18 C7 COM White 18: White has no idea that his group is in trouble. ENDCOM B 19 G5 COM Black 19: Przybyla's program looks for ways in which groups can extend towards the centre, and finds 19 because it was the only way for white to extend. Having played here, however, it loses interest until the group is down to 2 or 3 liberties. ENDCOM W 20 F5 B 21 F6 W 22 E6 B 23 C4 MARK A@D4 COM Black 23: He knows about ladders, and spots that white 8(A) can't be killed in one any more. ENDCOM W 24 G4 B 25 G6 W 26 D6 B 27 H4 W 28 E7 B 29 C6 MARK A@C5 7@E4 11@D5 15@E5 B@F2 COM Black 29: Lucky. As long as black 31(A) has not been played, the three stones 7, 11 and 15 have only two liberties and Black will not 'see' that the big white group has only three. After 31, though, he can 'see' white's danger, and adds another stone at 33(B), so that he can prove that white is dead. ENDCOM W 30 B6 B 31 C5 W 32 F7 B 33 F2 COM Black 33-43: Having played 33, Black can handle the fight up to 43. The game was by no means over after 43, but Black's advantage was clear. ENDCOM W 34 B5 B 35 B4 W 36 H5 B 37 J5 W 38 H3 B 39 H6 W 40 H2 B 41 D1 W 42 G1 B 43 E1 COM Black 33-43: Having played 33, Black can handle the fight up to 43. The game was by no means over after 43, but Black's advantage was clear. ENDCOM W 44 L5 B 45 J3 W 46 J2 B 47 F1 W 48 H1 B 49 J4 W 50 K2 B 51 K4 W 52 L4 B 53 G11 W 54 E11 B 55 J11 W 56 L3 COM White 56 is more or less the losing move. Both of these programs explicitly recognise ladders, and neither would cut at 56, but Richard's program does not make the one extra step needed to avoid protecting against it. ENDCOM VAR W 1 L8 COM Variation by sgb. Not in BGJ. ENDCOM B 2 L3 COM Black would not cut at 2 because the ladder does not work. ENDCOM W 3 M3 B 4 L2 W 5 L1 B 6 M2 W 7 N2 B 8 M1 W 9 N1 ENDVAR B 57 L7 W 58 L9 B 59 K9 W 60 K8 B 61 L8 W 62 J8 B 63 M9 W 64 M10 MARK 58@L9 60@K8 COM White 64 is an example of a blunder several of the programs made trying to make good shape from dead stones. The shape of 58, 60 and 64 is good, but white is not 'strong enough' to use it properly. This is one of the trickier problems with using simple minded definitions of good shape. ENDCOM B 65 L10 W 66 M11 B 67 M12 W 68 N9 B 69 N12 W 70 J9 B 71 M8 MARK 64@M10 66@M11 COM Black 71 is a wasted move, but many of the programs would have wasted two moves by capturing 64 and 66 completely. ENDCOM W 72 B7 B 73 K7 W 74 E9 B 75 G7 W 76 F8 B 77 G8 W 78 A4 B 79 J10 W 80 H9 B 81 H10 W 82 G9 B 83 J7 W 84 A3 B 85 B2 W 86 A2 B 87 F12 COM Black 87 has been the biggest point for some time - if white had taken this point instead of 86 he might still have had a chance. From here until 105, black's yose is almost perfect. ENDCOM W 88 B1 B 89 E12 W 90 D11 B 91 D12 W 92 C12 B 93 M6 W 94 M5 B 95 C13 W 96 B13 B 97 D13 W 98 B12 B 99 N5 W 100 N4 B 101 N6 W 102 F11 B 103 K5 W 104 F10 B 105 L6 W 106 G12 B 107 H12 W 108 F13 B 109 G13 W 110 N3 B 111 C1 W 112 A1 B 113 G10 W 114 N8 B 115 B3 W 116 A5 B 117 H7 W 118 B9 B 119 H8 W 120 F9 B 121 E13 W 122 C8 B 123 N11 W 124 D8 B 125 N10 W 126 B11 B 127 N7 W 128 M2 B 129 PASS COM Pass ENDCOM W 130 K12 B 131 K11 W 132 J12 B 133 L12 W 134 L13 B 135 J13 W 136 M13 B 137 N13 W 138 L1 B 139 K13 W 140 A8 COM Black wins by 14 points. Note that the tournament was played on the basis of Chinese counting, so that the many extra stones White played inside his own territory at the end cost no points, and the stones Black played to capture White's dead stones were necessary according to the rules. ENDCOM