American Go E-Journal » Master/AlphaGo Commentaries

Response to the four Michael Redmond 9P AlphaGo-AlphaGo commentaries released last week has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic, with nearly 25,000 views so far in just a week.
“I loved the master series, but this is even better,” wrote Alek Erickson7. “I have been waiting for English pro commentary on the self-play games for so long.” And oncedidactic1 said the commentaries are “Really really valuable, both entertaining and enlightening, to hear Michael’s perspective on this game, which I’ve seen a lot of commentary on. I feel like Michael has wonderful insights into where alphago is at.” Bla Bla6 added that “This makes me realize that Ke Jie and the players in the Master series didn’t even come close of testing the limits of AlphaGo.”
Then on Sunday, Mr. AlphaGo himself, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis tweeted “1st #AlphaGo vs AlphaGo Redmond commentary: https://goo.gl/unK6dy amazing game and analysis: ‘AG has invented a whole new opening theory’!”

Check out the video commentaries here, with links to the sgf commentaries (in italic):
AlphaGo vs. Alphago with Michael Redmond 9p: Game 1
Redmond’s AlphaGo-AlphaGo commentaries launched

AlphaGo vs. Alphago with Michael Redmond 9p: Game 2
AlphaGo-AlphaGo Game 2; Fighting throughout, a surprising sacrifice, a final huge ko 

AlphaGo vs. Alphago with Michael Redmond 9p: Game 3
AlphaGo-AlphaGo Game 3: Three 3-3 invasions, a big moyo and a fight that fills the center of the board 

AlphaGo vs. Alphago with Michael Redmond 9p: Game 4
AlphaGo-AlphaGo Game 4: Reminders of Go Seigen, escalating trades and semeais, and a final ko 

“If only I could ‘like’ a 100,000 times, it would not be enough,” said From Fear to Trust1, while mmKALLL said “I think my head imploded here. Crazy to think of all the 47 games ahead… Thank you!” And Tokenias3 chimed in with “That dog is cute.”

“Guys, slow down!” pleaded trucid22. “1.5 hour review each day is a bit much. I can barely keep up! Spread out the games a bit.” The next set in the series is in pre-production now so trucid22 and the rest of the AlphaGo fans have some time to catch up. We’ll keep you posted on plans for the next release.

E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock hosts the commentaries, which are produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson (who created the snazzy introduction).

“With this game I get to talk about some moves in AlphaGo’s opening that remind me of the great player Go Seigen,” says Michael Redmond 9p in his game commentary on AlphaGo-AlphaGo Game 4. “The territory is very close throughout the game, while fighting in the center gradually escalates with trades and semeais to be calculated and discarded, and even during a final ko to kill a huge Black group, the correct variations leads to a half point difference.”

Click here for Redmond’s nearly 90-minute video commentary, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, and follow along with the sgf below, which as usual includes extra variations.

The video is produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson.

This exciting game features an astonishing three invasions at the 3-3 point, prompting Michael Redmond 9p to note that “This version of AlphaGo will invade here at any time when there is no urgent fighting going on. AlphaGo played an early invasion at the 3-3 in just two of the 60 Master series games, but that was shocking, as it defied the common knowledge of pros that such an early invasion should be bad. In this 50-game series AlphaGo played an early 3-3 invasion about 40 times.”

Click here for Redmond’s video commentary, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, and follow along with the sgf below, which as usual includes extra variations.

“Black plays a big moyo game, and then chases an eyeless White group into Black’s moyo, to start a fight that fills the center of the board,” adds Redmond.

The video is produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson.

“In this game AlphaGo shows great flexibility in the early stages, and also its ability to calculate extremely complicated fights later in the game,” says Michael Redmond 9P in his commentary on Game 2 in the AlphaGo-AlphaGo self-played series. Click here for his video commentary, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, and follow along with the sgf below, which includes the extra variations Redmond refers to in the video. “Against Black’s sanrensei, White plays two unusual moves at 10 and 16 to create a unique opening,” says Redmond. “As the fighting starts, White makes a surprising sacrifice, abandoning a group to take the offensive in the center. Fighting continues throughout the game to climax in a final huge ko.” The video is produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson.

In the first in a new series of AlphaGo video commentaries, Michael Redmond 9p, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock, reviews Game 1 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. Games 2-4 will be released this week, leading up to this year’s U.S. Go Congress in San Diego, which starts on Saturday.

“In the Master series earlier this year, AlphaGo first showed its big shimaris, and often played to dominate the center of the board in the early opening, using its famous shoulder hits to do so,” says Redmond. The Master version “had an early advantage in almost all of the games,” Redmond says, “and I was impressed with its ability to simplify complicated middle game positions and bring the game to an early outcome. Less convincing was the way Master handled complicated joseki. It also had a disturbing habit of losing several points in the endgame to win by the smallest possible margin.”

“With this new self-played series,” says Redmond, “I wanted to see how these traits had survived AlphaGo’s evolution; five months is a long period of time for a self-teaching AI. The exciting news is that Alphago has changed dramatically.” Click here, to find out how in the video commentary and see below for Redmond’s extensively commented sgf file. The videos are produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson; sgf editing support by Myron Souris.