[Computer-go] [ANN] Michi - 15x15 ~6k KGS in 540 lines of Python code

[Kahn Jonas]

>  So what's the strongest program you can make with minimum effort
> and code size while keeping maximum clarity?  Chess programers
> were exploring this for long time, e.g. with Sunfish, and that inspired
> me to try out something similar in Go over a few evening recently:
>
> 	https://github.com/pasky/michi

Very nice!
I think I will learn from it.

> Unfortunately, Chess rules are perhaps more complicated for humans,
> but much easier to play for computers!  So the code is longer and more
> complicated than Sunfish, but hopefully it is still possible to
> understand it for a Computer Go newbie over a few hours.  I will welcome
> any feedback and/or pull requests.
>
>  Contrary to other minimalistic UCT Go players, I wanted to create
> a program that actually plays reasonably.  It can beat many beginners
> and on 15x15 fares about even with GNUGo; even on 19x19, it can win
> about 20% of its games with GNUGo on a beefier machine.  Based on my
> observations, the limiting factor is time - Python is sloooow and
> a faster language with the exact same algorithm should be able to speed
> this up at least 5x, which should mean at least two ranks level-up.

Maybe a first step would be using numpy arrays for the board and
patterns. They are quite fast, so the pattern matching should go fast.
It won't be any help for the really sequential loops, however.

> I attempt to leave the code also as my legacy, not sure if I'll ever
> get back to Pachi - these parts of a Computer Go program I consider most
> essential.  The biggest code omission wrt. strength is probably lack of
> 2-liberty semeai reading and more sophisticated self-atari detection.

It will certainly be an essential learning tool for future newcomers!

Jonas