| format | 21-round Swiss | |
|---|---|---|
| board size | 9×9 | |
| rules | Chinese | |
| komi | 7 | |
| time | 9 minutes plus 10/30s |
The first round started at 16:00 UTC.
Black won 37 games, White won 41 games, and there were 5 jigoes.
I was very pleased with this, the 100th KGS bot tournament. (In fact the numbering is not really correct, this was the 100th monthly KGS bot tournament excluding the "Slow" tournaments.) The entrants included what appear to be the world's three strongest programs, and I watched the games with interest.
I have often said in recent reports that, as a 3-kyu player, I do not feel able to comment on games by players which have dan ratings. This ought to be particularly true of 9×9 Go, at which the strongest programs are said to be near professional strength. Yet I noticed several moves by strong players in this tournament which seemed to me to be blunders. I have described them below.
In round 1, CrazyStone played Zen19S. After all meaningful moves had been made, CrazyStone was ahead by two points. But it continued making meaningless moves, while Zen19S passed. However one of Zen19S's passes was not received by the server, and Zen19S is shown as losing on time.
In round 2, Zen19S had hardware trouble with one of the three miscellaneous computers that it runs on, and was several minutes late joining its game with AyaMC. It still won.
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| DolBaram vs CrazyStone |
| Moves 37-41 |
Also in round 2, before the sequence shown to the right was played, DolBaram as White had a winning position against CrazyStone. However, ajahuang has pointed out that move 34 is a blunder. Move 38 is also a blunder; instead White can play 38 to the north of 35, allowing him to recapture one stone when Black captures four and keeping his group connected.
In round 3, MCark vanished after playing one move against DolBaram, and lost on time. It continued to have problems up to round 7, disconnecting and losing on time in rounds 3, 4, 5 and 7.
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| CrazyStone vs pachi |
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Moves 51 and 52 |
Also in round 2, pachi blundered against CrazyStone, as shown in the figure to the left. If, instead of 51, it had connected its dead stones in the bottom left making a "bulky five" shape, CrazyStone's left side group would have been reduced to one eye, giving pachi a clear win.
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| Zen19S vs pachi |
| At end of game |
In round 5 the game betwen Zen19S (White) and pachi ended in the position shown to the right. Zen19S has won by 88 points.
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|---|---|---|
| Cyrago9 vs pachi | ||
| Move 41 | Moves 63-65 | Move 85 |
In round 7, pachi, in its game with Cyrago9, entertained the observers with
some of its moves, as shown in the three diagams above. With move 41 (left diagram)
it failed to make a "bulky five" at the top left, which would have killed the white
group. This was the same mistake that lost pachi its game against CrazyStone, shown
above. But Cyrago9 failed to take advantage of this and save its group.
With move 63 (middle diagram) it again failed to make a "bulky five", this time in
the bottom right, which would eventually have killed the other white group. Maybe it
judged that making the connection in the centre with 63 was more urgent, as, with
two kos, the lower right white group cannot be captured quickly. Again Cyrago9
failed to save its group. With move 65, pachi surprised the observers by correctly
making the "bulky five".
With move 85 (right diagram) finally made a "bulky five" in the top left as well,
leaving all the white stones dead.
At the end of round 7, MCark's operator successfully updated his version of the kgsGtp.jar client. MCark ran correctly for the next twelve rounds, without disconnecting. I was puzzled by this. I had been running a copy of GNU Go correctly before the tournament (to test it in case it was needed to make the numbers even), and did not encounter any problems with the client. I was running version 3.5.0, dated 2011-07-24.
In round 14 there were two jigoes, between DolBaram and Zen19S, and between pachi and AyaMC.
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| Zen19S vs CrazyStone | |
| After last meaningful move. | Moves 75-77 |
In round 18, CrazyStone lost to Zen19S, having won its previous 17 games.
This was another interesting game. CrazyStone may have thought that it had killed
the white group in the top left, and that it was winning when the last "real" move
was made, as shown in the left-hand diagram. But the white group is alive in seki,
and White is ahead.
Instead of passing, CrazyStone then played
purposeless moves inside Zen19S's territory, while Zen19S passed. Eventually,
Zen19S passed when it should have responded, and CrazyStone was able to start a ko
with move 75, as shown in the right-hand diagram. If it had then fought this ko, by
playing on the top right corner point and playing self-atari in the seki as a ko
threat, it could have won the ko, and (I believe) won the game by two points.
Instead it conected the ko with move 77, and lost the game.
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| DolBaram vs ZeInky n19S |
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At end of game |
In round 20, Dolbaram (White) and Zen19S both passed in the position shown
to the left. DolBaram thereby won by one point – an odd margin if victory is
possible because there are three neutral points in the seki at the bottom left. If
Zen (Black) had played at the point marked with a triangle, it would have claimed
one of these points, making the result jigo. (White cannot claim any of the three
points without losing his whole group).
Towards the end of round 20, MCark disconnected,
and lost on time, again. It also lost, by Forfeit, in round 21.
Players receive points for the 2014 Annual KGS Bot Championship as follows:
| Crazy Stone | 8 |
| Zen | 4 |
| DolBaram | 4 |
| pachi | 2 |
| Aya | 1 |