American Go E-Journal

Next week’s face off between Ke Jie 9p and DeepMind’s updated AlphaGo software promises to be more than a long-awaited grudge match (“One small bleep for a computer, one giant push for mankind,” commented AGA President Andy Okun). It will also be be a chance to think about the future of go. Moves suggested by AlphaGo have already become common in online and professional tournament play as players build, break and rebuild their opening and middle game theories. “More than anything else, then, this is a chance to learn new things about the game by analyzing, commenting on, arguing about and playing over the moves thrown off in the brawling between China’s fearsome slugger and Google’s triumph of modern engineering,” Okun said. “We should do this together.” To this end, any chapter that holds an AlphaGo viewing party during next week’s event is eligible for $100 of (non-alcohol) expenses supported by the AGA president’s discretionary chapter rewards points pool, in addition to using their own points. Since the games are in Asia and may be late at night, watching online later is fine. Conditions are that the chapter is current, that more than a couple of people attend, that it be before May 30, and that you send the EJ a notice of the event beforehand so we can put word out about it, and an account of the event and a couple of pictures. Send questions to president@usgo.org.