Gifu Challenge 2003
The Gifu Challenge Computer Go World Championships were held in Ogaki city in Gifu prefecture, Japan
on the 2nd and 3rd of August 2003. There were seventeen entrants from at least eight different
countries, although most of those from outside Japan were not there in person, they simply sent
their programs and had them operated by the organisers. Only myself and Yongkyoon No from South
Korea made the trip. I had assumed that because the prize money was not particularly large that
the contest itself would be on a small scale but I couldn't have been more wrong. The venue and
the media interest were the best I have seen in Japan. The contest was in a large conference hall
and many side events were arranged to keep the public and media entertained. For example, there
was a debate on stage between two professors and a professional go player, there were lectures
on go and the history of computer go, and commentaries on some of the games which were projected
on a huge screen. There was also an area where people could play against KCC Igo on one of several
PC's and just to convince people that they were really playing against computers the PC's consisted
of circuit boards and power supplies that were simply bolted to the walls, with no cover. A couple
of camera crews were there on both days and I was interviewed for Japanese television.
Before the contest I thought it was likely to be a battle between Goemate, Haruka and my own program
Go++. I didn't consider any other program to be in the running. I was a little concerned that KCC
were organising the contest and thought that they may have made some breakthrough in strength.
However just weeks before the contest they released their latest product in Japan and I was sent a
copy. I had played four games against it. Go++ won 3 of them by large margins (20 points or more) and
lost one game by half a point. I figured that made Go++ at least 1kyu stronger. So I thought to myself
that even if KCC got lucky they could possibly win one game against one of the top programs but their
chances of winning the whole contest were slim.
On day one my first serious opponent was KCC and sure enough I won the game. Afterwards the operator
(KCC's publisher, Mr Yamamoto) told me that they'd made a mistake. He said they had made a special
custom version of KCC to exploit weaknesses in Go++ but forgot to use it.
My next important game was against Haruka. This was a big worry for me. Go++ does not like Haruka's
style at all and I knew from my test results back home that this was close to 50-50. I could not bear
to watch the game and went for a walk. When I came back I found that I had lost by just one and a
half points - what a bummer!
Another big match that day was Haruka vs Goemate which was won by Haruka much to the delight of its
author Mr Kawa. So at the end of day one Haruka had beaten both of its toughest opponents. I reported
to friends back home that Haruka would now cruise to a comfortable victory and I would be 2nd or 3rd
depending on how I did against Goemate.
On the second day was Haruka vs KCC. I assumed this would be a formality for Haruka but amazingly KCC
cut off some vital stones and won! They said that that had a special Haruka version and this time
remembered to use it! Now suddenly there were five programs with just one loss: Go++, Haruka, Goemate,
KCC and Many Faces of Go. Many faces had yet to play either Goemate or Haruka so I thought that it would
not stay on the running for much longer, so that left Go++, Haruka, Goemate and KCC to fight it out.
First off was Go++ vs Goemate. Again I couldn't bear to watch so I went for a walk. When I returned I
was disappointed to see that I'd lost a second game, this time by a large margin.
Next up was KCC vs Goemate. Surely KCC couldn't do it again I thought, but sure enough KCC had their
"special Goemate version" and it seemed to work, KCC won!
Now Haruka and KCC were tied with one loss and Goemate and Go++ were tied with two.
Later on KCC had to play Many Faces. Before the contest I had estimated that these were of a similar
strength so this was a opportunity for KCC to get knocked down but yet again KCC won.
The rest of the games all went to form so now the final rankings would all be down to the tie breaking.
The tournament grid was not on permanent display and with so many competitors and so many rounds only
the organisers knew the results. I went to ask Mr Yoshikawa for the final placing but he told me it was
a secret and wouldn't be announced until the prize giving ceremony which wasn't for another hour!!!
During that (very long) hour, a high school champion go player played KCC with a 9 stone handicap. The
game took place up on stage with two camera crews filming and a professional go player commenting on
every move. The poor kid looked absolutely terrified! Before the game was truly over, the professional
announced that the kid had won the game and it was stopped. Now at last we would find out the results.
And the winner is... KCC!! with Haruka 2nd, Go++ 3rd and Goemate 4th. Many Faces was 5th and Gnugo 6th.
I was relieved to be third because it keeps up my record of not having been outside the top 3 since 1996
but I can't help thinking that if my one and a half point loss had been a win I'd have won the whole
championships. Oh well, there's always next year.
The organisers thought that the contest was a great success and were looking forward to running the
contest again next year with bigger prize money.
Game records from the tournament are available here
Final placings:
Rank Program Author(s) Nationality
1. KCC Igo KCC Igo development team North Korea
2. HARUKA KAWA Ryuichi Japan
3. Go++ Michael Reiss England
4. Goemate Chen Zhixing China
5. The Many Faces of Go David Fotland USA
6. GNU Go GNU Go team many
7. NeuroGo Markus Enzenberger Germany
8. GORO OOISHI Yasuo Japan
9. Go Intellect 2003 Keh-Hsun Chen USA
10. Katsunari SEI Shin-ichi Japan
11. AYA YAMASHITA Hiroshi Japan
12. Shikou Sakugo TAJIMA Morihiko Japan
13. GoWind Ruhai Zhou China
14. Padook Invincible Yongkyoon No Korea
15. Carens Whisper KOBAYASHI Katsumi Japan
15. TSGO Ivo Johan Tonkes Netherlands
17. martha UJIIE Ichiro Japan
Full tournament grid:
+----------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+
| Program | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | Win | SL |SB/MD|Rank|
+----------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+
| 1.Go++ |Pado|KCC |Aya |HARU|Many|Kats|Goem|Neur|GNU | 7 |49.0| 34.0| 3 |
| | + | + | + | - | + | + | - | + | + | | | 23.0| |
| 2.Goemate|GoWi|Aya |Kats|GNU |HARU|Many|Go++|KCC |Go I| 7 |49.0| 33.0| 4 |
| | + | + | + | + | - | + | + | - | + | | | 22.0| |
| 3.Many Fa|TSGO|Kats|GORO|Go I|Go++|Goem|HARU|Aya |KCC | 5 |50.0| 20.0| 5 |
| | + | + | + | + | - | - | - | + | - | | | 12.0| |
| 4.Go Inte|GNU |GORO|KCC |Many|GoWi|TSGO|Shik|HARU|Goem| 4 |49.0| 16.0| 9 |
| | - | + | - | - | + | + | + | - | - | | | 8.0| |
| 5.HARUKA |Neur|Pado|GNU |Go++|Goem|KCC |Many|Go I|Kats| 8 |48.0| 40.0| 2 |
| | + | + | + | + | + | - | + | + | + | | | 30.0| |
| 6.KCC Igo|Shik|Go++|Go I|Neur|GNU |HARU|Aya |Goem|Many| 8 |49.0| 42.0| 1 |
| | + | - | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | | | 30.0| |
| 7.Aya |Care|Goem|Go++|Shik|TSGO|GNU |KCC |Many| -- | 4 |42.0| 10.0| 11 |
| | + | - | - | + | + | - | - | - | + | | | 6.0| |
| 8.Katsuna|mart|Many|Goem|Care|GORO|Go++|Neur|GNU |HARU| 4 |47.0| 15.0| 10 |
| | + | - | - | + | + | - | + | - | - | | | 8.0| |
| 9.GORO | -- |Go I|Many|Pado|Kats|Shik|GNU |Care|TSGO| 5 |31.0| 13.0| 8 |
| | + | - | - | + | - | + | - | + | + | | | 9.0| |
|10.Padook |Go++|HARU|Shik|GORO| -- |mart|Care|TSGO|GoWi| 3 |36.0| 5.0| 14 |
| | - | - | - | - | + | + | + | - | - | | | 2.0| |
|11.GoWind |Goem|Shik|Care|TSGO|Go I|Neur| -- |mart|Pado| 4 |31.0| 9.0| 13 |
| | - | - | + | + | - | - | + | - | + | | | 6.0| |
|12.TSGO |Many|Care| -- |GoWi|Aya |Go I|mart|Pado|GORO| 3 |30.0| 5.0| 15 |
| | - | - | + | - | - | - | + | + | - | | | 2.0| |
|13.GNU Go |Go I|mart|HARU|Goem|KCC |Aya |GORO|Kats|Go++| 5 |49.0| 19.0| 6 |
| | + | + | - | - | - | + | + | + | - | | | 12.0| |
|14.NeuroGO|HARU| -- |mart|KCC |Shik|GoWi|Kats|Go++|Care| 5 |40.0| 13.0| 7 |
| | - | + | + | - | + | + | - | - | + | | | 9.0| |
|15.Shikou |KCC |GoWi|Pado|Aya |Neur|GORO|Go I| -- |mart| 4 |35.0| 9.0| 12 |
| | - | + | + | - | - | - | - | + | + | | | 5.0| |
|16.Carens |Aya |TSGO|GoWi|Kats|mart| -- |Pado|GORO|Neur| 3 |30.0| 5.0| 15 |
| | - | + | - | - | + | + | - | - | - | | | 2.0| |
|17.martha |Kats|GNU |Neur| -- |Care|Pado|TSGO|GoWi|Shik| 2 |31.0| 4.0| 17 |
| | - | - | - | + | - | - | - | + | - | | | 0.0| |
+----------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----+----+-----+----+