After an 8-month break to work on other projects, Michael Redmond 9p, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, returned to the AGA’s Twitch channel last Sunday to review the 50th game of the AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo selfplay games. Michael and Chris caught up on the latest on COVID in Japan and what Michael’s been up to during the break, and producer Stephen Hu dropped by for a preview of the upcoming U.S. e-Go Congress. Michael then did a very deep dive into the opening and variations for Game 50. Part 1 of the commentary will be released at 6p tonight; Part 2 will be released next week. The 50 game series was published by Deepmind after AlphaGo’s victory over world champion Ke Jie 9p in May 2017. The video was produced by Eva-Dee Beech, Chris Garlock and Stephen Hu.
Michael Redmond 9P’s next live game commentary will be on his recent game with O Meien(right), known for his quick fuseki and fighting ability. He became a pro in 1977, two years after moving to Japan, and advanced to 9 dan in 1992. A very determined fighter, with plenty of kiai, in February 25 2010, O Meien hit the 900 landmark by beating Ko Iso in the final prelim of the 35th Kisei. O won the Honinbo title in 2000 and held it the following year before losing it to Kato Masao in 2002. O took the Oza title from Cho Chikun in December 2002. In July 2012, O Meien won his sixth title, the 2nd Igo Masters Cup, beating Cho Chikun.
The live commentary is set for this Sunday, November 15, 7p EDT on the AGA’s Twitch channel, and will be hosted by American Go E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock.
Michael Redmond 9P returns with a new live game commentary this Sunday, September 13 at 8P EDT on the AGA’s Twitch channel. The game will be another one from the archives, played in 1951 between Go Seigen and Yamabe Toshiro.
Michael Redmond 9P’s live commentary series resumes this Sunday, August 16 at 8p EDT on Twitch when he and E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock will review Game 45 in the AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo series.
In the latest episode in the Redmond’s Reviews series — which originally aired live on Twitch back in May on Mother’s Day — Redmond takes a look at his game against Yao Zhi Teng 5P. Once again, Michael tries some AlphaGo moves and “things get messy,” he says. Yao Zhi Teng 5p “is one of the younger really strong players,” and this game was played in late 2019 before the competition hiatus due to the COVID pandemic.
Also, Redmond continues to post new content on his YouTube channel, including life and death problems and his 1988 Judan final against Sakata Eio.
Tune in to the AGA’s Twitch channel at 8p Sunday night for Michael Redmond 9Ps live commentary on AlphaGo vs AlphaGo game 44. “It’s going to be wild,” says Redmond, “with two big groups that could have died in a trade and it’s not clear which is better or more important, various kos, and then suddenly it’s all over with the groups surviving, and a half point difference of course.” That’s 8p EDT this Sunday, July 26 on the AGA’s Twitch channel.
Tune in to the AGA’s Twitch channel at 8p Sunday night for Part 2 of Michael Redmond 9Ps live commentary on the 1939 game between Go Seigen and his friend and rival Kitani Minoru. If you need your Redmond fix sooner, not to worry, check out the latest Redmond Review featuring The Tengen Game between Honinbo Dosaku and Yasui Santetsu, which originally aired back on May 3. “What a treat!” says Sev.
And Redmond’s brand-new series, AlphaGo vs. The World — in which he and AlphaGo to Zero co-author Chris Garlock do short reviews of the 2016-17 Master vs human games — is now up to Game 11. “Some really beautiful moves by white in this great game,” says Rory Mitchell. “The placement of stones looks so calm, light, and impressive. Thanks so much for the video!”
If you missed the live commentary — originally aired on May 17 on Twitch — by Michael Redmond 9P and Chris Garlock on the second game of the historic 2016 AlphaGo vs. Lee Sedol match, it’s now been released on the AGA’s YouTube channel. Click here to check it out. “Those days of Lee Sedol and you two doing the commentary were some of the most enjoyable times during that AlphaGo match,” said Mike Young. “I got really excited about Go for awhile.”
While there was no live broadcast this Sunday, Redmond and Garlock will return on Sunday July 5 at 8 PM EDT on AGA Twitch. Meanwhile, you can check out their new AlphaGo vs. The World series playlist, with new releases of commentaries on the AlphaGo Master games every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 11 AM EDT.
Tune in to the AGA’s Twitch channel at 8p tonight for Michael Redmond 9Ps live commentary on the “Golden Panda Cup” tournament game between Mutsuura Yuta 7P and Iyama Yuta Kisei, Honinbo, Tengen (9P). Hosted by Pandanet, the tournament setup is similar to Nongshim in that there are three teams of five players, and player 1 from team A plays team B, winner plays team C, etc. with the winning player continuing into the next round and losing teams supplying the next player. Mutsuura was a player in the Shibano (Meijin, Oza) team and Iyama was the captain of the Iyama team. This was game 5 of the tournament, and Mutsuura 7P already had 3 wins. He took out former Gosei Kyo Kagen in round 2, and continued to beat Xie Imin and Fujisawa Rina in 3rd and 4th rounds. The Iyama and Ichiriki teams had lost two players each while the Shibano team was untouched. “The Iyama team apparently figured they needed their top player to stop Mutsuura and maybe hoped Iyama could take it away from there,” says Redmond. After winning this game Mutuura was the MVP, called the Golden Panda in this tournament.
In the first days of 2017, rumors started to ricochet around the online go community. A mysterious online player had been making huge waves by defeating dozens of top professionals on go sites in Asia in recent days. “Master” first appeared on December 29, 2016, registering from Korea. Achieving 30 consecutive wins against many former and current world go champions, Master defeated Park Junghwan four times and Ke Jie twice. After that, Master appeared on a different go site and logged another 30 consecutive wins. That made it 60 games in a row with no losses. Was AlphaGo the Master?
Michael Redmond had been on holiday when the games were being played but word had of course spread swiftly through the professional community about the mysterious online player racking up win after win. “That kind of record was simply mindblowing,” he says, “and even before I got the game files off the internet it was clear that something new was happening. Anyone – or anything – that could win 60 straight games could probably give a 2-stone handicap, and these were top professionals who were losing to a player no-one had ever heard of.” The 60 Master games were not only evidence that AlphaGo had attained a whole new level of play, but an incredibly rich “treasure trove for professionals,” says Redmond.
Working again with American Go E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock, Redmond is launching a new series of videos in which he’ll focus on the key points of each of the 60 Master games in brief videos, most of which will be 15 minutes or less. The commentaries will also be the basis for Volume 2 of AlphaGo to Zero: The Complete Games, “as well as a chance to introduce viewers to the professional go players who tackled Master,” notes Garlock.
The first video will be released on Tuesday, June 9 on Redmond’s YouTube channel and the series will be linked on the AGA’s YouTube channel as well. Stephen Hu is producing the series.
The human player in this first game is 15-year-old Pan Tingyu 1P, who finished #1 in the Chinese professional qualification tournament in 2015. Pan has Black and plays a modern version of the mini-Chinese, and AlphaGo shows a new move in the upper left corner, which has since become the standard move for White in the Chinese opening pattern.
Redmond on AlphaGo vs AlphaGo Game 44 this Sunday
Saturday July 25, 2020
Tune in to the AGA’s Twitch channel at 8p Sunday night for Michael Redmond 9Ps live commentary on AlphaGo vs AlphaGo game 44. “It’s going to be wild,” says Redmond, “with two big groups that could have died in a trade and it’s not clear which is better or more important, various kos, and then suddenly it’s all over with the groups surviving, and a half point difference of course.” That’s 8p EDT this Sunday, July 26 on the AGA’s Twitch channel.