Human makes Computer smarter than human, taking winner's prize: complex game Go has roots in ancient China some 3,000 years ago

Primary school students play the board game "Go", known as "Weiqi" in Chinese, during a competition.

Fan Hui makes a move against AlphaGo in DeepMind’s HQ in King’s Cross

AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol match - Go moves 1-99; moves 100-199; moves 200-211:

(quote)

January 28, 2016 Go, a game with its roots in ancient China some 3,000 years ago is hugely popular in Asia. The board game, which has its roots in ancient China some 3,000 years ago, has long been considered the ultimate test for artificial intelligence because of the large search space and the challenge of evaluating board position and moves. For those unfamiliar with the game which is hugely popular in Asia, it requires two players to alternative place black and white pieces onto a square grid with the goal of dominating the most territory. The program, called AlphaGo, swept all five games against three-time European Go Champion and Chinese professional Fan Hui, the first time that a Go-professional has lost such a match. Now, the program will take on the world’s top player Lee Sedol from South Korea – called the Roger Federer of the Go world - in a match scheduled for March in Seoul.
Go players acknowledge the success of AlphaGo but still held out hope that Sedol could win one for the humans. For many in the AI world, the victory was seen as a critical advancement for machines – that of playing games. After IBM's Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov at chess in the 1990s, many set their sights on Go, which is considered far more complex – requiring an average of 200 moves to 20 for chess.
between 9 and 15 March 2016 Machine takes winner’s prize in $1 million Challenge Match
AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol was a five-game Go match between South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol and AlphaGo, a computer Go program developed by Google DeepMind, between 9 and 15 March 2016. The match was played in Seoul, South Korea, using Chinese rules with a 7.5-point komi, and each side had two hours of thinking time plus three 60-second byoyomi periods. AlphaGo won all but the fourth game; all games were won by resignation. The match has been compared with the historic chess match between Deep Blue and Garry Kasparov in 1997.

The winner of the match was slated to win $1 million. Since AlphaGo won, Google DeepMind stated that the prize will be donated to charities, including UNICEF, and Go organisations. Lee received $170,000 ($150,000 for participating in all the five games, and an additional $20,000 each game won).

The match AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol is comparable to the 1997 chess match Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov. There IBM's Deep Blue computer's defeat of reigning champion Kasparov is seen as the symbolic point where computers became better than humans at chess

23 October 2002 Do not pass Go: computers can beat the world's best chess players but have yet to master other classic games like Go... it is probably still a decade or two away. Perhaps Go will be the final bastion in man's attempts to stave off his inevitable intellectual defeat at the hands of the machine.

Ever since Garry Kasparov's sensational 1997 loss to the IBM chess monster Deep Blue, the chess world has thirsted for revenge. But the first opportunity ended in failure in Bahrain on Saturday, when Kasparov's former pupil and successor as World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik, could only draw an 8-game match against one of the world's leading chess engines, Fritz. But this was just the latest in a long series of human versus computer encounters that illustrate the inexorable march of artificial intelligence (AI).

It's a story that began at a Dartmouth University conference in 1956, when several of the founding fathers of AI defined the goals of that infant science. One of them was to create a computer program that could defeat the world chess champion. Success would, those scientists believed, reach to the very core of human intellectual endeavour.

By the early 1990s, due in no small part to the successes achieved in computer chess, the interest of the AI community had spread to many other games of skill, including backgammon, bridge, Go and Scrabble. Where exactly are we now in this fascinating struggle?

Some "thinking" games lend themselves to exhaustive analysis. Programmers are able to create a huge database containing every conceivable position in the game together with the correct result (win, lose or draw) assuming perfect play on both sides, and the number of moves required to achieve that result. Playing the game perfectly is easy for a program - it just looks up the current game position in its database and chooses a move that maximise its prospects. Games that have been "solved" in this way include Connect-4, Go-Moku (also known as 5-in-a-row) and 3-dimensional noughts and crosses (played on a mind-boggling 4x4x4 matrix), all of which are won by the first player with correct play.
......
it is probably still a decade or two away. Perhaps Go will be the final bastion in man's attempts to stave off his inevitable intellectual defeat at the hands of the machine.

September 14, 2014 Why Thousands Are Learning the Ancient Game Go This Week - Go Game The origins of the game are lost in the mists of time, but we know that it was invented in China at least 2,500 years ago and that it could be up to 4,000 years old. The world's most powerful computers still haven't cracked it, but thousands of people in 20 countries are learning to play the board game "Go," as part of Learn Go Week. From September 13 to 21, Go players all over the world are introducing their local communities to the wonders of this ancient and intriguing board game.

Robin Williams and Einstein both enjoyed it, astronauts Daniel Barry and Koichi Wakata played it together in space, and Bill Gates dreamed of someday mastering it. The ancient board game Go has a surprisingly diverse list of devotees. Now thousands of people around the world are learning the game from local Go experts, for free, as part of Learn Go Week. This global event is taking place from September 13 to September 21, with events scheduled all over the world throughout the week.

Go is a strategic board game for two players, similar to chess. However, unlike chess, the rules of Go are incredibly simple and anyone can learn to play in five minutes.

Despite this simplicity, Go is one of the last remaining board games in which computers are still no match for the best human players. In fact, while chess master Garry Kasparov was defeated by IBM's Deep Blue way back in 1997, Go still holds out as the last frontier in the man vs machine stakes – something which appeals to many of Go's fans.

The origins of the game are lost in the mists of time, but we know that it was invented in China at least 2,500 years ago and that it could be up to 4,000 years old. Long before there was such a thing as "brain training," playing Go was already recognized as an excellent way to strengthen the mind.

27 January 2016 Fan Hui, three-time champion of the east Asian board game, lost to DeepMind’s program AlphaGo in five straight games

Game Go - hours in silent and peaceful contemplation. Go is an ancient game of skill and artistry. Masters of the game spend hours in silent and peaceful contemplation.

(unquote)

Image courtesy REUTERS / China Daily, Google DeepMind, Wikipedia, PR Web, gogameguru.com, and British Go Association