Professional vs. Computer-Go Bot: 2-1

During the 2008 Paris Go Tournament there was a demonstration match between Catalin Taranu 5 dan professional and Mogo which is one of the best Computer-Go programs in the world. They played a "best of 3" match on 9x9 with all games on even, komi 7.5 points. Catalin won by 2-1, but the game won by Mogo shows that there was very much progress in Computer-Go during the past few years.

There was also a 19x19 game: Catalin gave Mogo 9 stones handicap and won. Mogo is very strong on small boards only. On 19x19 there is a different story, because the number of variations to consider grows exponentially with the size of the board, and the depth of the analysis that Mogo can do is very limited compared with 9x9. You can follow all games below.

What's Mogo's level? According to the author, Sylvain Gelly: "With very little time, it can be no better than random, and with infinite time, it plays perfectly! [...] On a fast computer it should be at about 3 dan on 9x9 and 3 kyu on 19x19." Sylvain also has download and installation instructions in order to run Mogo on your computer.

If you have never played Computer-Go, or haven't done so in a while because you were frustrated with the level of Go programs from a few years ago, definitely give it a try, you may be surprised. I was surpised by the GnuGo bot recently - you can play against it online. And GnuGo should be a few levels below Mogo...

For those of you interested in Computer-Go from a technical perspective, there is a discussion thread on the computer-go mailiing list about this match.

Game 1 on 9x9, Catalin wins by resign.

Game 2 on 9x9, Mogo bot wins by resign.

Game 3 on 9x9, Catalin wins by resign.

Catalin gives 9 stones handicap to Mogo bot on 19x19 and wins by resign.