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From: dvl@hpisoa1.HP.COM (Doug Larson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: There are no good computer GO players
Message-ID: <7020002@hpisoa1.HP.COM>
Date: 28 Jan 88 19:04:55 GMT
References: <6250@cc5.bbn.COM>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino
Lines: 56

> Actually, there are quite a few GO programs which play competitivly
> at the amature level.  I don't remember the terminology very well,
> but I seem to recall that the recent winner of the world computer
> go tourny was at the 18 kyu level.  I think a high number is better,
> but I could be wrong.

> |        Michael Wolf                | An old Scandinavian quote:            |

Actually, there aren't any GO programs that are any better than 15 kyu.
And 15 kyu is very weak for a human player.

In amateur ranks, there are two types of ranks: dan and kyu. Dan ranks
get stronger with higher numbers and kyu ranks get weaker with higher
numbers.  The weakest dan player (1 dan) is one rank stronger than the
strongest kyu player (1 kyu).

Amateur ranks:

	Very strong	8 dan
			< 2-7 dan in here >
	Moderate	1 dan
	Moderate	1 kyu
			< 2-9 kyu in here >
	Weak		10 kyu
			<11-19 kyu in here >
	Very Weak	20 kyu


A human player that works at it a little can normally reach the 20 kyu
level in less than 2 months.  With work, a human player can reach 10 kyu
in a year or so.  All this depends on the amount of work, the quality of
one's opponents, the quality of teaching,  and (of course) ability.  A
human player who has never played and has just had the rules explained
to him could be considered to be in the 30-40 kyu range - but ranks
weaker than 20 kyu are *very* shaky because of their great variability
from game to game.  Ranks weaker than 10 kyu are fairly shaky - these
players can perform quite differently from game to game.

Professional grades in japan run from 1 dan to 9 dan (Higher numbers are
stronger).  I will just say that professional players are *very* strong
and leave it at that.

If you are a chess player, here is my (very rough) psychological comparison
of chess ranks with GO ranks.  Of course, take this with a large lump of
salt ...

Amateur Go ranks vs. chess ranks  (my estimates)

	6 dan	2300 (master)
	1 dan	2000 (Bottom of expert range)
	5 kyu	1600 (Bottom of B class)
	10 kyu  1300 (Middle of D class)
	15 kyu	1000 (Bottom of E class (I think ...))


Doug Larson ( 1 dan )
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