3/26/13
Crazy Stone computer Go program defeats Ishida Yoshio 9 dan with 4 stones
Search this website…
HOME
GO GAME SHOP
LEARN GO
Search
WATCH BADUK TV
GET BETTER AT GO
GO NEWS
RESOURCES
SHOP
BADUK TV
ABOUT
Home » Go News » Crazy Stone computer Go program defeats Ishida Yoshio 9 dan with 4 stones
Crazy Stone computer Go
program defeats Ishida Yoshio 9
dan with 4 stones
GET UPDATES (IT’S FREE)
Get better at Go with free updates.
(Your opponents won't
know what happened!)
Enter your email address...
Sign Up!
JING 7 COMMENTS
Switch
Tweet
18
Enter your email
address and click
17
'Sign Up!'
Crazy Stone, a computer Go program by Rémi Coulom, defeated Ishida Yoshio
9p with a four stone handicap, as part of the inaugural Denseisen at the 6th
Computer Go UEC Cup in Japan (March 20, 2013).
USEFUL RESOURCES
The Computer vs the computer
It was an ironic showdown between the computer and ‘The Computer’.
Ishida was nicknamed ‘The Computer’ in his prime, because of the accuracy of
his counting and endgame skills.
Ishida Yoshio
Born in 1948, Ishida is now 64
years old.
However, back in the 70s, Ishida
won the prestigious Honinbo
title for an impressive five
consecutive years, making him
one of the top players of that
era.
After the game, Ishida said that
he thought the program was a
‘genius’ and marvelled at the
calmness and flexibility of its
Ishida Yoshio 9 dan – ‘The Computer’.
moves.
In contrast, Ishida admitted that he felt frustrated at not being able to catch up.
gogameguru.com/crazy-stone-computer-go-ishida-yoshio-4-stones/
1/10
3/26/13
Crazy Stone computer Go program defeats Ishida Yoshio 9 dan with 4 stones
Towards the end of the game, as Crazy Stone began to play some safety first
moves that lost points, it became clear to those who are familiar with computer
Go that Crazy Stone believed it had won.
We can assume that Ishida was briefed about the possibility of this happening
before the game, so he wouldn’t be taken aback.
In the end, Crazy Stone won by 2.5 points.
Rémi Coulom
Coulom and Crazy Stone also won the 6th Computer Go UEC Cup a week
earlier, defeating the defending champion, Zen.
POPULAR ARTICLES
Learn Go The Easy Way: How you
can start playing Go right now
How to get better at Go
Go Commentary: Gu Li vs Lee Sedol
– 17th Samsung Cup Final – Game 1
5 tips for dealing with unexpected
moves in Go
30 of the world's best Go players
Thinking big in Go
Learn Go The Easy Way: The 3
techniques of a Capture Go ninja
Classic Go Games: Xu Xingyou vs
Huang Longshi – The Games of
Blood and Tears
Rémi Coulom (left) placing stones for his program, Crazy Stone, against Ishida Yoshio.
Crazy Stone seems to be enjoying a resurgence after having previously won the
How to deal with 5­4 openings: Tips
and tricks
1st and 2nd Computer Go UEC Cups.
Whole board seki game 1
Those of you who follow computer Go will be familiar with Zen. It defeated
Takemiya Masaki on four stones in 2012.
Takao Shinji’s comments
At this more recent event, Ishida also played against Zen on 4 stones. However,
Zen didn’t fare as well against the Ishida and, according to Takao Shinji 9p,
PROFESSIONAL GO CALENDAR
Siptan Semifinals
When: Mon Mar 25, 2013 to Tue
Mar 26, 2013 made many unforced errors.
Wonik cup(Sipdan) semi final; Kim
Seungjae vs Lee Donghoon
Takao, a former Honinbo himself, also commented on the game between Ishida
When: Tue Mar 26, 2013
and Crazy Stone.
He admired black 52, pointing out that it’s the kind of move a human would
overlook (preferring to atari from the other side instead).
GS Caltex Cup Quarter Final; Cho
Hanseung vs Lee Donghoon
When: Wed Mar 27, 2013
That’s because it would be a bad move under most circumstances, but in this
Maxim Cup Final, Game 2; Park
Junghwan vs Lee Sedol
case it was surprisingly effective.
When: Wed Mar 27, 2013
20th Chinese Rookies Cup
When: Thu Mar 28, 2013 to Sun
Mar 31, 2013 BADUK TV ENGLISH
gogameguru.com/crazy-stone-computer-go-ishida-yoshio-4-stones/
2/10
3/26/13
Crazy Stone computer Go program defeats Ishida Yoshio 9 dan with 4 stones
Baduk TV English: Becoming 5 Kyu:
Lesson 14
Baduk TV English: Takemiya
Masaki vs Rin Kaiho – Searching
for Exquisite Games: Episode 13
Baduk TV English: Becoming 5 Kyu:
Lesson 13
Baduk TV English: Lee Sedol vs Gu
Li – Searching for Exquisite Games:
Episode 12
Baduk TV English: Becoming 5 Kyu:
Lesson 12
BADUK TV GUIDE
Hansae University Alumni
Competition
When: Tue Mar 26, 2013 11pm to
12am KST
Samsung Cup, round of 16 ­ Lee
Sedol vs Kongjie and Lee Changho
Black 52: The normal move for 52 would be A, but then white would play at 52. In this case, if white
connects at A, black exchanges B for C, and then captures the whole group with D. So white can only play
C and, after black A, 52 is shown to be an excellent move.
Takao said that white didn’t get any other good chances after black’s excellent
play (with 52 and so on) at the bottom.
A four stone handicap
For the benefit of readers who aren’t necessarily Go players, a four stone
handicap means that black (the computer) was allowed to place four stones on
the board before white (Ishida) made any moves.
This may sound like a lot but, while it is a significant handicap, it’s not really as
vs Gu Li
When: Wed Mar 27, 2013 12am to
2am KST
China Korea Friendship Matches ­
Park Junghwan vs Piao Wenyao
When: Wed Mar 27, 2013 2am to
4am KST
Price Information Cup ­ Lee Sedol vs
Kang Dongyun
When: Wed Mar 27, 2013 4am to
8am KST
Baduk N TV League
When: Wed Mar 27, 2013 8am to
Wed Mar 27, 2013 10am KST
big as it sounds.
Only a fairly strong amateur player can hope to defeat a professional player like
Ishida Yoshio with four stones.
More to come!
The University of Electro­Communications and the Nihon Ki­in (Japanese Go
Association) have teamed up to host more computer­human Go tournaments
over the next five years!
This event, the Denseisen, translates literally to something like ‘electronic holy
war’ gogameguru.com/crazy-stone-computer-go-ishida-yoshio-4-stones/
3/10
3/26/13
Crazy Stone computer Go program defeats Ishida Yoshio 9 dan with 4 stones
Rémi Coulom, Crazy Stone and Ishida Yoshio at the inaugural Denseisen.
The nitty gritty – rules and hardware
The games were played under Japanese rules and the players were given 30
minutes main time, followed by 30 seconds per move byo­yomi (quite a fast
game by professional standards).
Crazy Stone ran on a 64­core server when playing Ishida. Zen ran on a 30­core
cluster of 5 PCs.
We don’t have more details about the exact specifications of the hardware at
the time of writing, but if you know, please leave a comment below.
What do you think about the games?
What do you think about the games (just below)?
Did Crazy Stone’s steady play surprise you? Or are you getting more used to a
world where computers are now very good at Go?
Leave a comment below to let me know what you think Game records
Crazy Stone vs Ishida Yoshio
gogameguru.com/crazy-stone-computer-go-ishida-yoshio-4-stones/
4/10
3/26/13
Crazy Stone computer Go program defeats Ishida Yoshio 9 dan with 4 stones
Tool:
→ Jump to Move
Game:
Crazy­Stone­vs­Ishida­Yoshio­20130320
Black team:
64 cores
Handicap:
4
Komi:
Ishida Yoshi, 9d0.5
Crazy Stone
Result:
B+2.5
captures: 0
time left: ­­
captures: 0
Date:
20 March 2013
time left: ­­
[link]
Zen vs Ishida Yoshio
gogameguru.com/crazy-stone-computer-go-ishida-yoshio-4-stones/
5/10
3/26/13
Crazy Stone computer Go program defeats Ishida Yoshio 9 dan with 4 stones
Tool:
→ Jump to Move
Game:
Zen­vs­Ishida­Yoshio­20130320
Black team:
30 cores
Handicap:
4
Komi:
0.5
Ishida Yoshio, 9d
Zen
Result:
W+R
captures: 0
time left: ­­
captures: 0
Date:
19 March 2013
time left: ­­
[link]
Zen vs Crazy Stone
gogameguru.com/crazy-stone-computer-go-ishida-yoshio-4-stones/
6/10
3/26/13
Crazy Stone computer Go program defeats Ishida Yoshio 9 dan with 4 stones
Tool:
→ Jump to Move
Game:
Komi:
Result:
Date:
Crazy Stone
Place:
captures: 0
Event:
Zen­vs­Crazy­Stone­20130317
6.5
W+R
17 March 2013
Zen
University of Electro­Communications, Tokyo
time left: ­­
captures: 0
time left: ­­
6th Computer Go UEC Cup
[link]
Further reading
Takao Shinji’s commentary (Japanese)
More about the Computer Go UEC Cup
A list of human vs computer Go challenges
Article in the Mainichi
Denseisen event page (Japanese)
Rémi Coulom’s homepage
Takemiya Masaki 9p vs Zen
Computer Go demystified – with computer Go expert Martin Müller
Man vs Machine Showdown – The Shodan Go Bet
Switch
Tweet
18
17
GO NEWS – MARCH 24, 2013
About Jing
Jing likes writing, and can occasionally be convinced to play a game of Go. Although
she doesn't play Go as often as she once did, she still enjoys following the
gogameguru.com/crazy-stone-computer-go-ishida-yoshio-4-stones/
7/10
3/26/13
Crazy Stone computer Go program defeats Ishida Yoshio 9 dan with 4 stones
professional Go scene and writing about it on Go Game Guru. You
can find Jing on Google+ and follow Go Game Guru on Facebook,
Google+ or Twitter.
Comments
VZ says:
March 25, 2013 at 12:38 pm
A big achievement by Crazy Stone! With another program just four stones
under professional level, I’m optimistic about the future of computer Go. Higher
computing power combined with more efficient algorithms will definitely push
computer powers into the professional ranks within a decade.
Reply
Jing says:
March 26, 2013 at 2:25 pm
It will be really interesting when they get strong enough to play pros in
serious, slow play matches – at least 3 hours for each player.
So far we’ve only seen fairly fast games against pros and if games on Go servers are
anything to go by, fast games seem to tilt the tables in the computer’s favor.
Reply
Murius says:
March 25, 2013 at 6:29 pm
Great news! I already use crazystone on my android tablet. I wish I had the
equivalent of programs like “fritz” in chess in order to analyse my game with a reliable
engine so I can understand where I went wrong etc. In chess computers are a great tool
to better one’s game, I hope the same can be said for go in the near future!
Reply
Anonymous says:
March 26, 2013 at 8:58 am
Rémi was working on an experimental analysis tool for Crazy Stone, I
don’t know of his current plans for it. He tried it out on one of my games, you can
read the thread here: http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewtopic.php?
f=18&t=5360 and see the analysis here: http://www.grappa.univ­
lille3.fr/~coulom/CrazyStone/Uberdude/index.html
Reply
gogameguru.com/crazy-stone-computer-go-ishida-yoshio-4-stones/
8/10
3/26/13
Crazy Stone computer Go program defeats Ishida Yoshio 9 dan with 4 stones
Jing says:
March 26, 2013 at 2:27 pm
That’s kind of cool! Reply
Mef says:
March 25, 2013 at 10:45 pm
I like how the computer was described as remaining calm. I look forward to
the day when we can truly make computers that “get nervous” over a game of go.
Reply
Jing says:
March 26, 2013 at 2:28 pm
Me too Mef Sometimes it’s cute reading the way some pros talk about a computer player, like it’s
a person. Takao also said he was upset with Zen for playing such bad moves, on his
blog.
Reply
Speak your mind
Name
Email
Website
Post Comment
Notify me by email when someone else comments on this page.
gogameguru.com/crazy-stone-computer-go-ishida-yoshio-4-stones/
9/10
3/26/13
Crazy Stone computer Go program defeats Ishida Yoshio 9 dan with 4 stones
Related articles
Zen computer Go program beats Takemiya Masaki with just 4 stones!
Computer game tycoon to keynote first US International Go Symposium
Learn Go The Easy Way: How to use the edge of the board to capture
Get free worldwide shipping on Go boards, stones and bowls
Iyama Yuta defeats Gu Li, Japan wins Bosai Cup
GO GAME GURU | CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-NONCOMMERCIAL-SHAREALIKE 3.0 UNPORTED LICENSE | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS OF SERVICE | RSS
gogameguru.com/crazy-stone-computer-go-ishida-yoshio-4-stones/
10/10