Brady Daniels: If AlphaGo Could Trash Talk – Game 3 Review

Hi, welcome to Brady’s Blunders, where I usually show you the mistakes in my games, but today I’m doing something very different. Actually, I’m going to carry on with the AlphaGo versus Lee Siddhal series that my last video was about. So my first order of business is to say thank you to everyone who watched that last video and then subscribed. And everyone who watched that last video and liked it or anyone who watched it and made comments, I really, really appreciate it. And you make making these videos a lot easier with that sort of feedback. So thanks a lot guys. And many of you asked actually, hey Brady, can you do another video with some of the future games? And I decided that, yeah, I would do it. And again, I’m going to do it based around themes. And actually, I’ve already kind of made it about the next two videos, but it was too long. So instead, I’m breaking it in half and I’m going to do one on game three and another one on game four. And I hope you like them. But let me make one thing clear as I did at the beginning of the last video. I’m a low down player. And there are people out there making videos and they’re going through all the variations and they’re going through all the moves in incredible detail. And I will link to them down below because they’re great. So if you’re a go player and you really want to understand every move, I highly recommend you watch them. My goal is a little different. And I’m kind of looking at it as a go fan who is trying to understand and appreciate how off-go is competing with one of the strongest professionals of today. And as I said, I was going to raise things around themes. So I changed the themes from last time because several of them were answered. So for example, in the last video I asked, does off-go like to fight? It had been characterized as having a peaceful style, but could it compete in the modern game and it answered that question resoundingly, yes, I can. So we don’t need to ask that again. But there are a few that I talked about before that are worth carrying on with. Like for example, innovation because the question is no longer can off-go innovate and you use stones in very creative ways. It’s how will it innovate and use stones in creative ways? And will it continue to challenge or receive the wisdom? Things that we know are right because we’ve been told for right and our parents were told they were right and so on for centuries. There are going to be purposes of moves or sequences of moves that off-go demonstrates to us. Actually, you received wisdom, it’s just plain wrong. And then the leases, all the style adjustments, I’ll get right back into because it matters for game three. But how will he deal with playing with this artificial intelligence? And especially because he’s dropped the first two games. So it really matters now. And I hope he’s got a plan for game three. One of the things that people have told him and people have encouraged him is start complicated fights and long fights and co. And the idea behind this is, before AlphaGo, all the other bots that use Monte Carlo method have to limit the depth of their search, a certain amount. So they’re not necessarily looking at fights that go on for a lot of moves and trying to figure out who wins. And so people are encouragingly say to challenge AlphaGo this way. And of course one of the big ways and one of the more complicated and longer fights you can start is a nice mid-game co. So would he do that? And Monte Carlo eccentricities, okay, I’m going to give a hint, those don’t really come up in game three. So I’m not going to talk about that. And Masterpiece, yeah, we’ll come back to that. So enough said for introduction, let’s get into the game. So the third game AlphaGo is white and we said all is black. And right here, we said all is played. This is called the Chinese opening along the top side, those three stones. And with the relation to the stone and the lower left, this is a relatively fast opening. Instead of a slower conservative opening that’s focusing on territory, the goal of this one is to build a framework. And you’ll see the effects of that in just a moment. So white plays similarly also building a framework. But with this move, black is threatening to perfect his framework. If white was to come back and you can see that this stone is alone, and if he came back and helped it, then if black played at either A or B, he would grow his framework still further and make invading the framework much, much harder for white. So white had a choice here, do I want to help the single stone? Or do I want to go ahead and make sure that framework doesn’t get too big too fast? And AlphaGo jumped right in, which the consensus is, this is definitely the right thing to do. And it’s what strong pro players would do as well. But this is playing until he sit all his hands or his style, if you like. And in the first game I discussed that, we said I’ll try to trick AlphaGo. He played an opening that had never been seen, and the hopes that he was going to take AlphaGo out of the territory that it studied. And hopefully that unfamiliarity would give Lee Siddhal an advantage. And unfortunately, the opening that he tried actually gave him a disadvantage, and AlphaGo punished it. And Lee Siddhal felt like he was behind from the very beginning of the game. So that strategy, while Clever, didn’t work. In the second game, a lot of pro commenters said that Lee Siddhal didn’t play like Lee Siddhal. That he didn’t attack the weak group that was at the bottom from the very beginning. AlphaGo left an opportunity, and Lee Siddhal didn’t play it. And it felt like normally he would attack that group. So instead he played more patiently. Again, maybe style, that’s not really his. Well, with this third game, by setting up the framework, and when White jumps in, this sets up a fight. And it sets up a fight in Black’s territory, in Black’s fear of influence. And this is a really key point. And this is playing until he sit all strength. So this was quite exciting, and not something we’d seen before. So Black took away White’s base, and then White jumped out relatively fast, trying to make a light shape. And Lee Siddhal had other options than what he chose, some of which would take territory on the left. But Lee Siddhal decided I’m going to be true to my style, and I’m going to cut these stones apart. And again, the idea of being, you’ve got all of these Black stones around to help in a fight. And if I can just cut White apart, then I’m going to have the advantage. Prison Blue, that’s what Lee Siddhal was thinking. White played here, trying to connect. And again, it’s supposed to go through all moves. Let’s just look at it from here. So here Black has succeeded in separating White. This stone is isolated, and these stones don’t have a base. They don’t have a clear way out. Black’s corner is getting smothered a little bit, but it’s going to be safe. Now I said White doesn’t have a clear way out. White is going to get out. It’s not in real danger of dying right now. It’s just not a comfortable group. And the question is, how would Black attack it and could Black profit in the attack of this White crew? And so this is the move with which White started to move out. And you can see that it succeeded in doing so. And then Black played here. Now there’s been some criticism of this move, but I don’t really think it’s necessarily fair. And I’ve actually seen several other pros supporting it. This is the natural move. And it’s moving out to the center. And the reason people are criticizing it is because these Black stones got into a lot of trouble because of White’s next move. And the problem with that criticism is I don’t think that trouble was predictable. And I’ll explain why. But if Black had helped these stones instead and then White had gotten to play here, then although White had invaded Black, White would now be out into the center and beginning to control the center and quite comfortable. So even if Black had played differently, I don’t know that it would be a good result for Black. And that’s one of the marvelous things about this game. White played here. And this was a move when all the pros saw it. They were all saying, wow. And in multiple fouries saw the word wow. How did they think of this move? And the reason is we’d all think of different moves, maybe this or possibly this. These two moves have a relationship with or close relationship with this stone and these stones. And it just feels more natural to the human eye. And when White played all the way over here, it feels further and just less related to this stone and this stone. And it’s just not something that we think of. Now this stone to this stone’s formation is called the elephant jump. This is a concept within human go. I mean, the move itself isn’t unique. It’s the application that surprised the professionals. And then the results that came after sort of confirmed that this is a really, really clever move. If White played either the other moves that I showed, Black would actually get a decent result out of it. And this move gave Black an inferior result. So that’s why it was so cool. And the sequence that followed, I mean, not a move is completely forced, but you can see the result is that Black didn’t really get much of anywhere. Black’s got a whole lot of moves that are just trying to make sure his group stays as a single group. It doesn’t feel really efficient. In the meantime, White managed to get outside and attack this stone. So White’s got outside access with these and is beginning to take a territorial B. Now this is amazing because it was just a few moves ago that I was saying that White was moving within Black’s sphere of influence and Black was going to attack it. And Black, Lee Sedol is one of the strongest fighters in the world. So the fact that within just a few moves, White was able to sort of shrug off the attack. It’s like an amazing wrestler against a novice. And the thing is, Lee Sedol’s not a novice. Lee Sedol’s amazing. And this was a tremendous result. Anyway, the game is far from over and White still has work to do. It’s just really impressive how quickly it resolved the difficulties it seemed like it should have been in. So Black pushed out and White pushed out. And at this point, there’s another interesting concept. And this Black group is running and has no eyes. And this Black group also has no eyes. And I think most pros would say that when that’s the case, you really want to do something to split them. So just play a move somewhere in between so that they can’t join up. And the idea being that if the opponent’s got two weak groups, you may be able to do some serious damage to one while it helps the other. And I think this is how most people expected it to react. Some move to split. But it didn’t. Instead, Ophogod just played here. And it was almost like, no, no, no, it’s all right. If you want to go ahead and save your little pathetic groups, I don’t mind so much. I’m going to go ahead and start controlling the outside because that’s where the points are. I don’t know. It’s just, if you could talk, I’d love to hear what it was saying. So Black gave a forcing move and then went ahead and played where he probably thought that Ophogod should have and he linked his groups. And now with just one more move around here, Black would be alive. But White didn’t take that away either and instead White just steadily moved out and said, you know, the bottoms look kind of attractive to me. I’m going to move out this way. And Black moved out too. White just steadily said, no, no, no, I’m fine. Games looking good. I’m just going to steadily move on out. And exchange in the lower left. And then this was a really interesting move, at least at all. And what it’s aiming at is this White group up here isn’t yet alive. And it’s according to, I think I heard Michael Redmond say that it will be able to get an eye either here or here. So it’s good for at least one eye and shouldn’t have too much of a problem making another. But it’s still running into space. And if Black can build a strong wall here, then maybe he’s got a chance to attack. It’s pretty clear that that’s what Black was doing with this move. And with the moves that follow, it seems that AlphaGo kind of figured that out. And AlphaGo built some strength for itself and then also took territory. And then when Black played this, which took away one of the areas where White could escape, White played this slow looking move that really helps him make shape along the top. And then when Black jumped into the corner, White was happy to let him just live and said, I’m going to take the entire bottom side. Thank you very much. I’m winning. Oh, here’s another received wisdom thing. All Go pros will tell you don’t do this Atari that White did. AlphaGo played this Atari because it gives Black a very solid shape and there’s no Haji within that shape, and yet AlphaGo didn’t care and went ahead and played it anyway. Maybe it doesn’t think it needs the Haji to win. So it’s just trying to simplify the shapes and simplify the games. Now, this was an interesting move to me, and I think a lot of amateurs, but the pros who looked at it and right away knew exactly what AlphaGo was doing with this move. And the idea is by playing the move inside Black’s territory, Black will kill it, but give White moves on the outside, which helps make White much safer. And this is exactly what happened. When Black played that way, White was able to go ahead and make really solid eye shape along the top. And the White group isn’t 100% safe, but it’s getting really close. This move looked like a mistake when Black played it, and it’s because I didn’t see its purpose. And I thought this move looked funny, but there is a ladder coming this way. And the ladder wasn’t good until Black played this, but of course White fixed the ladder right away. And I assume that the purpose of this move was to get this move. And at least it all thought maybe he’d be able to live inside White’s territory. And he tried later. So at this point, Black was able to squeeze White, but White’s shape is getting pretty secure in the upper right. And Black threatened to start a co here and White just made sure that it was safe at this point. And then we said I’ll jump in. And we said I’ll need to jump in because he’s way behind at this point, just purely in terms of points. And this isn’t something, I mean, it was something that needed to happen, but not something that I really expected. A big White Open Shape like this is if an amateur invades it, or if an amateur gets invaded, often that invasion will work because the amateur, you know, when you’re fighting, every move needs to be correct or have value. And as soon as you play a slack move, your whole attack can fall apart. And so in a lot of amateur games, you’ll see Black invade and live, but you don’t really expect to see it in professional games. So when we said I’ll did it, it was curious and it was a lot of fun to see what would happen. And AlphaGo immediately said, no, you’re not going to live here. And the sequence that followed was, well, it was interesting. And again, watch some of the videos and read some of the literature about it. All these moves are interesting and they all have purpose. And with this move, Black offered a co. Now I’m going to take just a minute to explain co to the non-go players in the audience, those who are just kind of interested in the man versus machine aspects of it. And let me explain what co is because I’m going to use the term in this game and the next. So right here, if this Black Stone is an Atari, that means it has only one Liberty. So that means white can capture. So the white plays here, you can see that this white stone is now an Atari. And the idea of co is that Black is not allowed to just recapture the stone that captured his because that would reproduce a board position. And the reason this is so important is, let’s say that the game is really close and there’s a position like this that’s important. And if either side backs down, they’re going to lose the game. If you were allowed to keep recapturing, so white captures Black and then Black Stone, that’s only one Liberty and Black recaptures and then White says, oh no, there’s only one Liberty and then recaptures. If this was a really important situation and the fate of the game depended on it, neither side would ever do anything but that. And that would make for a pretty dull game where actually I suppose it would make for a draw. But since this sort of situation comes up so much that people who created go invented go made a rule that in this situation when White captures Black, Black has to go play and move somewhere else before recapturing. So Black, let’s just come up with one, might play something like this which threatens this whole group. And if White then connects, now Black gets two moves in a row and you can see that this White group would be in trouble. So instead of connecting, maybe White’s going to go ahead and capture this Black Stone. Well now they’ve exchanged moves, so Black can go ahead and capture White. So this is what’s called a co-fight where both sides are fighting over this single location, but to do the entire fight they have to keep playing moves somewhere else. And that move has to be important enough that the opponent must answer and co-fights can get very complicated. This example is quite simple. Okay, so when Black played this he offered a cup. And normally most people would expect White to answer locally. Like I’m going to go ahead and start to win this co-fight, but instead White to Nukki, to Nukki means to play elsewhere. And so White played elsewhere on the board and secured his group at the top. With this it’s basically certain that this White group up here has a living shape, two eyes. So when Black moved here he started another co-over here. So you can see that this Black Stone only has one liberty and it seems like White could be captured but can’t. So White just sealed Black in here. And I’m not going to go through the reasons for all the rest of the moves until the very end. And that’s because both sides played well and it’s a little bit complicated. And there will again, there will be other people who are talking about each and every move of these games, which as I said, went to down below. All right. The big important lesson of this game is that White was actually playing well. So if you look at that number three, the complicated fights and co, at least for this example, White seemed to know exactly how to handle the situation. So there’s one of those co-threats I was talking about. And at least I haven’t seen any complaints of White’s moves within this particular co. And it didn’t last very long. And when White played here, Black realized I got no way to win this game and we said all resigned. And the reason for that is if Black decided to win the second co that started over here, then White could just play here, making one eye and Black can’t stop White from getting another eye. If Black plays here, White can play here, thus assuring that he will get two eyes. And as soon as White has two eyes, all of these Black stones are dead and White has too much territory. So that’s one way it could proceed. If Black went ahead and captured the stone, then once White captures here, Black’s got no threat that’s nearly big enough. If White gets another move and captures here, all these stones are going to die. These stones are going to die. These stones are going to die. And even all of these Black stones are running without eye shape. So the game would just be over. So as opposed to going through one of those variations, Black just resigned. And White had won. And this game is so impressive for AlphaGo. And again, this was the first game where people said this was Lisa Idol playing like Lisa Idol. This was fighting his strength. And it just felt like AlphaGo is able to parry all of its attacks, all of his attacks so easily. And once it built the lead, it didn’t try to be too violent at all. It just decided to grow territory along the bottom. And it was only when Lisa Idol decided to invade the bottom as a final test to AlphaGo, if you will, that AlphaGo showed its strength and said, yep, I can do this. I can fight and forced Lisa Idol to resign. So as we conclude this game, let’s look at the themes. Innovation and received wisdom. OK, I mean, the big one here. So after Lisa Idol played this move, which just looked to make sense. And then White answered with that elephant jump was just in the upper left-hand corner was just really cool. And I don’t think I could apply it in my game, but I promise you pros are trying to figure out how to apply that splitting move elephant jump in theirs and gain advantage. Lisa Idol’s style adjustment. Well, yeah, this was the game where Lisa Idol played is Lisa Idol. I’m going to fight. I’m going to cut. And I mean, you know, and he didn’t wear it. He had the biggest advantage. He started with a fight in the upper left. So this was the, again, this is the first game where I don’t know, people felt that he was playing his style. And I mean, that made it doubly interesting. And doubly devastating when it didn’t work for him. The complicated fights in the co. Well, Alphago was able to say very clearly, no, I get this with this fight at the bottom and the and the co that resulted and seem to play it really well. But this isn’t necessarily the complicated fight and co that people were looking for. This was relatively late in the game and not nearly as complicated as some mid game co situations. So this is still something to look for. Monte Carlo eccentricities, none really to speak up in this game. Now let’s talk masterpiece. Because Lisa Idol didn’t play badly. Lisa Idol created the situation he wanted. He created the fight he wanted. And it’s really hard to point at specific moves and say this was bad. I think Michael Redmond said that very first, let’s see, where was it? That very first splitting move may have turned out to be the problem. But certainly no one knew that before this. And if it turned out to be the problem, well, that’s something we all learned. But it was a perfectly reasonable move at the start. And Lisa Idol was creative and is it leaning attacks over here trying to attack this, but it was deflected easily by AlphaGo. And then finally, when Lisa Idol plummeted into the bottom to try to see how far forward AlphaGo can read, can it really kill? It could really kill. It could really read and it could really fight co. And it’s hard to argue against this game being a masterpiece for AlphaGo. Alright, in the next video, I’ll deal with the fourth match. Thanks for watching. Let me know what you think. Bye bye.