Thursday April 30, 2020
Honinbo Shuwa-Genan Inseki or Honinbo Dosaku-Yasui Santetsu? That’s the choice for this Sunday’s live video commentary by Michael Redmond 9P on the AGA’s Twitch channel with E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock. Click here to vote!
Then on May 9, Redmond will review one of his own tournament games.
And on May 17, Redmond and Garlock will review one of the AlphaGo-Lee Sedol games and discuss their new book AlphaGo to Zero. Click here to vote on which AG-Sedol game you’d like to see reviewed.
Saturday April 25, 2020
Tune in to the AGA’s Twitch channel Sunday night at 8p EDT (note later time!) to catch Michael Redmond 9P and Chris Garlock with their latest live game commentary on the AlphaGo vs AlphaGo series. SpaceTime Machine calls it “my favorite YouTube series hands down.” Tune in at 8p on Sunday, April 26; viewers will be able to ask Redmond and Garlock questions during the live commentary.
PLUS: Check out None Redmond’s captivating story about “11 year old Michael meets a legendary Go player” on Redmond’s YouTube channel.
Friday April 24, 2020
Michael Redmond 9p, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, reviews the 38th game of the amazing AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo selfplay games. The 50-game series was published by Deepmind after AlphaGo’s victory over world champion Ke Jie 9p in May 2017. Redmond: “This game starts with a complicated variation on the 3-3 invasion, then goes on to a completely different part of the game where a ko is the focus, and then there’s a lot of trippy stuff with ladders and finally there’s some life and death problems.” Garlock: “A little bit of everything.”
Produced by Stephen Hu, Allen Moy and Chris Garlock
Saturday April 4, 2020
Tune in to the AGA’s Twitch channel Sunday night at 7p EDT to catch Michael Redmond 9P and Chris Garlock with their latest live game commentary on the AlphaGo vs AlphaGo series. “With so many of us sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re happy to be able to connect with go players around the world,” said Garlock. Tune in at 7p on Sunday, April 5; viewers will be able to ask Redmond and Garlock questions during the live commentary.
PLUS: Check out Redmond’s brand-new YouTube lesson on The Direct 3-3 Invasion Keep it Simple!
Sunday March 22, 2020
In this game, “the attacking side suddenly abandons the attack and sacrifices some stones,” says Michael Redmond 9P in his latest AlphaGo game commentary with Chris Garlock. “The attack sort of disappears into thin air.” At the same time, the defending side is trying to sacrifice some stones as well, “so it’s a very unusual fight,” Redmond says, “it wouldn’t happen among human players, I don’t think.” Oh, “And the endgame gets a bit exciting, too.”
The commentary originally streamed live on the AGA’s Twitch channel; follow it to get notified of upcoming live streams.
Friday March 20, 2020
Tune in to the AGA’s Twitch channel Saturday night at 8p EDT to catch Michael Redmond 9P and Chris Garlock with their latest live game commentary on the AlphaGo vs AlphaGo series. “I see you guys are having new teaching tools!,” said Nat Cole, referring to Redmond’s ability to draw on the board using OGS. “It’s much more effective than when we had to go off on the a, b, c, d, e points. Thank you for doing that!” “Great stuff!” added Ian Eccleston. “I renewed my AGA membership to help support this content.” Tune in at 8p on Saturday, March 21; viewers will be able to ask Redmond and Garlock questions during the live commentary.
Friday March 13, 2020
More than 13,000 viewers — a new record for the AGA’s Twitch channel — tuned in for Thursday night’s Twitch broadcast featuring Michael Redmond 9P and Chris Garlock discussing their new book “Alphago to Zero” and reviewing a game from the historic 2016 showdown between the world champion and the DeepMind AI. “Their passion for this game is infectious,” said CalmExit. The two talked about what it was like to provide the English-language commentary for the 2016 match for a global audience with intense media attention, and took questions from viewers. Chayashida wondered about “Michael and Chris’s thoughts, looking back, four years later…on the actual match as well as how AI has changed the game in the past 4 years.” And sam83a wondered “Does Michael plan writing other books using AI other than this 4-volume series? For example revisiting his san ren sei book, or analyzing historical classical games.” Check out the video to hear the answers to those questions and more, as well as Redmond’s review of Game 4 — chosen by a viewer poll — of the AlphaGo-Lee Sedol match. “I absolutely love how much Redmond loves the game,” said Trevoke. Stephen Hu produced the stream.
Wednesday March 11, 2020
Michael Redmond 9P and Chris Garlock, who teamed up four years ago to comment the historic AlphaGo-Lee Sedol match in Seoul, will appear on the AGA’s Twitch channel Thursday night at 7p EDT to discuss the match and their brand-new e-book AlphaGo to Zero.
“When AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol, some said it was the end of go,” Redmond and Garlock say in the book’s introduction. “As we have seen since then, it is rather more likely that in many ways the game has just begun.”
The two will discuss the book with viewers, and will take another look at some of the games from the match, with questions and comments from viewers. “Being able to interact with viewers in real time is a real treat,” says Garlock. “We’re really looking forward to it!”
Sunday March 8, 2020
Four years ago today, the whole world watched as a computer program took on one of the top go players in the world. And won. From the historic AlphaGo-Lee Sedol showdown in Seoul in March 2016 to the release of AlphaGo Zero in November 2017, Michael Redmond 9P and Chris Garlock have had a front-row seat, commenting, analyzing and reporting as the AlphaGo AI upended thousands of years of human history. Today, on the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the AlphaGo-Lee Sedol match, they’ve released Volume 1 of AlphaGo to Zero, the first of a 4-volume EPUB series that will thoroughly cover the AlphaGo phenomenon.
Redmond and Garlock will discuss the book and review games from the AlphaGo vs. Lee Sedol 9P match on Twitch at 7p EDT on Thursday, March 12. They’ll also discuss their experience doing the commentary on the historic match and take viewer questions.
Since the 2016 AlphaGo-Lee Sedol match, Redmond and Garlock have released a popular series of AlphaGo videos and game commentaries on the American Go Association’s YouTube channel. In AlphaGo to Zero, Redmond and Garlock use the power of the EPUB platform to take an in-depth look at the March 2016 showdown between AlphaGo and Lee Sedol 9P. The EPUB not only includes new insights into the match and each game, it enables readers to easily review video game summaries Redmond and Garlock recorded after each game, including some never before released to the general public. The game commentaries include clickable diagrams and Redmond’s original commentaries alongside brand-new comments. It’s also illustrated with color photos of all the action, including some never previously published.
In addition to EPUB, the book is also available in the Go Books app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
As the AlphaGo Team says in their introduction, “Chris and Michael experienced first-hand the anticipation and excitement felt by the entire AlphaGo team, and understand better than anyone the significance of these games in showcasing what can be achieved when human and machine come together to solve complex problems.”
“This book is our attempt to capture that story,” say Redmond and Garlock, “to tell you what we saw at the time, what we see now, and to try to place this moment in the history of the game, to get a sense of where we may be headed. When AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol, some said it was the end of go. As we have seen since then, it is rather more likely that in many ways the game has just begun.”
AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo; Game 39: Playing Away
Friday May 1, 2020
Michael Redmond 9p, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, reviews the 39th game of the AlphaGo vs. AlphaGo selfplay games. The 50-game series was published by Deepmind after AlphaGo’s victory over world champion Ke Jie 9p in May 2017. Chris and Michael chat about Redmond’s new YouTube channel and catch up on how Japanese pros are dealing with the COVID19 shutdown. “In this game, you’re going to be surprised a few times, when AlphaGo plays away from a position,” says Redmond, “plus there’s the usual stuff that it does with ladders. AlphaGo has special ways that it deals with ladders, which is something that’s caught on with human players.”
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