Playing GNU Go

I played a match against GNU Go 3.6 in between my analysis work today. The program had to run on a 116MHz laptop and was very slow (this kept my desktop free to connect to my company's encrypted virtual private network). I liked the more relaxed pace of the game which took over an hour to finish with 199 moves.

I managed to win by 11.5 moku with a handicap of five stones at Level 10. My game interface was Drago. GNU Go makes very sensible moves (to me, that is). I played thoughtfully and adhered as was applicable to Otake Hideo's 20 principles in Opening Theory Made Easy. The slow pace gave me plenty of time to assess the whole board situation.

Sometime in late October, I'll hopefully be able to write-up a review for Hideo's book. If you're impatient, my assessment in a nutshell is that is should be in every beginner's library.