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).
AlphaGo vs AlphaGo Game 5: An AI-like opening, then one fight at a time and a beautiful endgame
Saturday September 2, 2017
“In the opening this game looks very AI-like to me, in that I think the order of moves is not consistent,” says Michael Redmond 9p in his game
commentary on AlphaGo-AlphaGo Game 5. “In the middle game Black controls the center of the board. Our reading skills are tested as Black invades White’s moyo, and then White lives with three weak groups inside Black’s sphere of influence. Unlike in other games we’ve seen so far in this series, the middle game fights are one at a time instead of all over the place, like in Game 2, for example. It’s more organized, you might say, so in that way, it’s easier for me to explain what’s going on. The game winds up with a very nice endgame, in fact I think it’s a beautiful endgame.”
Click here for Redmond’s video commentary, hosted by the AGA E-Journal’s Chris Garlock. As usual, the commentary in the sgf file here includes variations not covered in the video commentary, and for the first time, the sgf commentary now includes additional comments transcribed from the video. Both include the news that Redmond and Garlock are now working on an e-book about the AlphaGo-AlphaGo games. Redmond and Garlock discuss their plans for more AlphaGo-AlphaGo commentaries in this brief video.
The video is produced by Michael Wanek and Andrew Jackson. The sgf file was created by Redmond, with editing and transcription by Garlock and Myron Souris.
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