Strategic information in the game of Go

Michael Harre, Terence Bossomaier, Ranqing Chu, Allan Snyder

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

We introduce a novel approach to measuring howhumans learn based on techniques from information theory andapply it to the oriental game of Go. We show that the total amountof information observable in human strategies, called the strategicinformation, remains constant for populations of players of differingskill levels for well studied patterns of play. This is despite the verylarge amount of knowledge required to progress from the recreationalplayers at one end of our spectrum to the very best and mostexperienced players in the world at the other and is in contrast tothe idea that having more knowledge might imply more 'certainty'in what move to play next. We show this is true for very localup to medium sized board patterns, across a variety of differentmoves using 80,000 game records. Consequences for theoretical andpractical AI are outlined.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)667-672
Number of pages6
JournalProceedings of the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology
Volume65
Publication statusPublished - May 2010

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