[Computer-go] Q about CG2006 MCTS paper

[Rémi Coulom]

On 1 janv. 2011, at 15:13, Fuming Wang wrote:

> Hi Remi,
> 
> Thanks for the reply. If I understand correctly, for outcomes of 0 or 1, the formula would become something like the following, right?
> 
> variance = u - u^2 + 1/S
> 
> Best regards,
> Fuming

Yes, it is correct. A random variable with binary outcomes has variance = u * (1 - u). 1/S is a term to make sure it is not estimated to zero.

Territory variance may change a lot, so it is important to estimate it. But for binary outcome, it is not necessary to worry with such complication, and using a constant value such as 0.25 may even work better in practice.

Rémi