Match 1 15 min Summary - Google DeepMind Challenge Match
# Historic First Round Game: Lee Sedol vs. AlphaGo - A Deep Dive into the Moves
In this historic first round game of the Google DeepMind Challenge in Seoul, we saw an intense battle between Lee Sedol, one of the world's top Go players, and AlphaGo, the groundbreaking artificial intelligence developed by Google DeepMind. The game was not just a test of skill but also a momentous occasion in the history of Go.
Chris Garlock and Michael Redmond, both experts in the field, provided an insightful analysis of the game. They walked through the moves, highlighting the strategies employed by both players and the critical moments that shaped the outcome.
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## A Unusual Opening Move
The game began with a somewhat unusual move by Lee Sedol. Instead of playing on the upper side as expected, he opted for a different approach, possibly to deviate from AlphaGo's extensive database (the "opening book"). This decision was intriguing because it was a move that neither Garlock nor Redmond had seen before.
AlphaGo responded with its own unique strategy, setting the tone for a game that would be far from ordinary. The early moves hinted at the complexity and depth of the game ahead.
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## Building Territories and Fighting Style
Lee Sedol's fighting style is known for being aggressive, and this game was no exception. He initiated a fight on the upper side, which led to the creation of territory for White (AlphaGo). However, this also left Black (Lee Sedol) with weak groups that needed careful handling.
Garlock noted that while Lee Sedol's move seemed dangerous, it was in line with his playing style. The commentators discussed how AlphaGo handled the complexities of the game with precision, showcasing its ability to adapt and respond to unexpected moves.
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## A Surprising Admission
After the game, Lee Sedol admitted that he had made a mistake in the opening. This confession surprised the commentators, as they believed his initial move was plausible and not necessarily flawed. Garlock mentioned that he was "a bit worried" about certain points during the game but ultimately respected Lee Sedol's decision to play aggressively.
This admission added an interesting layer to the discussion, highlighting the pressure and complexity faced by even the most experienced players when competing against AI.
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## The Fight for Territory
As the game progressed, both players engaged in a fierce battle for territory. AlphaGo played forcing moves that put Black's groups at risk, but Lee Sedol responded with his own aggressive strategies.
One critical moment occurred when Black (Lee Sedol) made what Garlock called a "losing move." This decision allowed White to gain significant territory and set the stage for a potential upset. The commentators speculated whether fatigue from recent tournaments like the Nong Hyup Cup had played a role in Lee Sedol's decision-making.
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## A Close Game
The game ultimately ended with AlphaGo securing a narrow victory, but it was far from decisive. Both players demonstrated exceptional skill, and the outcome hinged on small differences in territory and influence.
Garlock reflected that the game was "phenomenal" and a true test of both human and AI capabilities. He noted that AlphaGo's ability to close down positions and maintain initiative was a key factor in its win.
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## Conclusion
This historic match between Lee Sedol and AlphaGo was not just a milestone for Go but also a testament to the advancements in artificial intelligence. The game showcased the strategic depth of Go and the remarkable progress made by AlphaGo, which continues to push the boundaries of what machines can achieve in competitive play.
As Garlock and Redmond look forward to the next games in the series, they expressed hope for more close matches that would keep fans on the edge of their seats.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi I'm Chris Garlock and I'm here with Michael Redmond nwn professional we're going to take a little bit more of an in-depth look at this historic first round game in the Google deepmind challenge here in Soul uh between yadal and alphago uh Michael once you take it away okay let's just go through the moves I I have some things I'd like to say about the game okay um so so far it's looking like a pretty normal opening but um with this move leis is already playing a very unusual move I'll have to look this up to see if it's actually a new move or not I've never seen it before myself um the usual move of course is something on the upper side right um and so Google plays here yeah and it's possible that this was part of his strategy to do something off book yeah I think he was just trying to get off of the DAT database that Google has um and do something that was plausible at the same time mhm so white played a kakari yeah and black start and also the fact that this sort of starts a fight um which is Le's style and so he's uh getting a nice territory on the right side the question is what happens on the upper side naturally white invades yes um so now black has these two weak groups white has this weak group it's a question of who's going to attack who no he didn't push there he played there yeah and black played here and then the peep and white actually played very strongly here to cut black in two and now black sort of has to handle uh those stones on the bottom side M um but this is this is really dangerous for black but it's also uh leedle style so I wasn't really thinking that he was um doing badly at this point um um uh after the game he was saying that he uh made some mistake in the opening and so I don't really know what he's talking about this is a fight that I would be u a bit worried about if I was playing black um but I think it's sort of something that lisao likes to do anyway so I wasn't expecting him to say that he messed up in the opening in this yeah I thought that was interesting too so I was sort of surprised um black extended here white white has to protect these zones and in this fight it's okay for white to lose those three stones like if black had played something like this it's highly likely that white Lo would lose those stones um but that would be okay if white can get a trade with the center stones and some of these black Stones here um but this these four stones are stones that white cannot afford to throw away so that's the meaning for this move okay White's playing a very reasonable sequence here um in a very difficult fight actually um and this was quite as you pointed out in in our live commentary this is this is quite different from the uh games uh played with uh Fon back in the fall well F was um basically he was not playing as well as LEL do okay um and so I think the alphao was actually having a less of a challenge um and act but on the other hand alphao is actually much stronger in this sequence and so um it it's standing up to the challeng doing very well team said at the press conference afterwards that they were you know back there in the control room you know looking and and that that this fight was the overall was pushing pushing it to its limit because yeah it is a very complic it would be a very complicated fight for for professionals right uh White jumped out I think jump right and at this point I think white played here and let's just play these forcing moves too and this black group is just sort of barely alive there are some forcing moves like the Hun that came up later in the game and let's so white pushes um and now Alpha go counterattacks um very sharp move right it's a sharp move um it's not really going to work in that it's not going to attack black very much but it does give white um it allows white to put some pressure on black and therefore get some extra moves as we shall see um black has to fix the shape here okay white extends and black jumps out this a fairly complicated fight well there's all these weak Stones all over the place like there's this weak group this weak group black is willing to throw away those stones but there's still some potential for black over there which makes it complicated for white too and then there's this weak white group so there's at least and of course these Stones which are probably going to be sacrificed but there's already four weak groups with some potential for more complications here unfortunately for black this group is alive but it feels like like Lee is is throwing everything at alphago and alphago is not bailing out Alo is fighting very well Toe to Toe so much so it's playing a fighting game um much more skillfully than I expected because that was sort of looking like one of its weaknesses okay yeah but I wasn't sure because it was having a relatively easy time time in the October games and so now black plays here white plays here and um for the time being these two stones cannot move immediately there's a bit of ay there some potential for black uh these stones have been extended out into the center um and so they're okay for the time being and so it's still white doesn't really have time to move out with these Stones before saving these Stones because they're not alive yet so if black gets something like this next to sort of surround these Stones there's going to they're going to be very cramped and white will be forced to play a lot of bad moves or inefficient moves to make a life there so so white pushes out um now this is sort of consistent to um what alao was always doing it an ambiguous position um when it was playing f it would always play move close to its weakest group to reinforce that weak group which is um a good good style really so now black plays here um this captures the two stones here and at this point uh during the live commentary we feel you know black Scott side territory this thickness that's going to be territory it's alive here yeah um might has some potential in that corner some potential in this corner as you showed you know 40 points with one more move but other than that other than that white doesn't have anything yet it's looking like black has some potential at this point that's what makes it confusing to hear he said all say he made a mistake in the beginning because um if I had black at this point I would feel that I had a slight Advantage right and it would not be a decisive Advantage um because You' feel comfortable I would be a bit uneasy about this territory here that did get messed up later in the game uh and also because of the fact that white does have those extra forcing moves um so I would be a bit worried about something happening there later because partly because of all these white stones in the line here um also um there's so much uncertainty because that can be a big territory in that corner if white plays the first move if white plays a move here that is um so this is now locked up that's a big difference if white plays compared to if black plays first and so there's a lot of uncertainty as to how the territories will develop so there a big difference just one move will make um so I wouldn't be be feeling comfortable yet okay but I would feel that maybe I had a slight lead so white jumps in here again White's handling his weakest group and also like if black had played like a move like this next this would put pressure on the white stones and um because of that white would not be able to invade the side so the whole side would become Black's territory and so that would be bad for white so this is sort of a must move black plays a coar here this was a very it's an interesting move I think it was slack but you didn't like this during the live commentary do you like it better now you still don't like it I think would you call it an outright mistake or just simply slow a slow move SL I'm I'm not sure it's a complete it's a it's a move that white has to play at some point I'm I'm just sort of concerned with the timing right and and we there there's a lot of variations you show during the live commentary I mean there is there is some AI here there there's potential for black move like this right we sh a lot of complicated stuff so so it's not it's not unreasonable yeah right um but it's probably the double approach there is pretty big yeah it's it feels uh this this is an area of the board that white has to play um to to make a very quick life in the corner and so playing normal jiki moves like this probably doesn't work very well for white and so um it's really good that white is playing light moves quick moves like this and so this sort of fits the position so it's very good positional judgment for for alphago here um so yeah I'm I'm pretty sure at this point just seeing Alpha go playing moves like that e already knows that it's it's not a fake player it's really uh pretty good because this is a position that doesn't come up it's not going to be the whole board position would not be in the database nothing even close to it you might find some of the moves here in the database but it's using them in a perfect position more or less it's very elegantly settled that thought using them very well it shows um some good judgment uh not only the knowledge of the Mose but the way it's using them in this particular position and it also leaves some really nice I don't know if we have time to go into it but it leaves some very nice a here because of here and here and it this winds up actually all that stuff key okay um so white I think white played one H here one H mhm and then white switched to the corner now this is a forcing move against Black's group up there because black does need to make eyes so black makes eyes with this exchange here forcing Here and Now black has one eye here and one eye here so white left it at that point and this is an important move again because it's setting up the invasion here right which is what comes and they slided um and and black allows a trade so this is this is It's a move it's been hanging for a while oh yeah well that's an important move um both players were sort of expecting that to happen um but this is sort of within the um within what black was sort of expecting to happen now and then white protected the corner that's a really big move that white has to come back to at some point because otherwise so that's that's something like um more than 40 points in that corner now um black squeezes hair so white has about 10 points here and about 10 points there so white has something in the vicinity of 60 points um black also has a very oh he didn't play that yet sorry black has something in the vicinity of 50 points here at this time and so he has territory here um so all that white territory um it it's pretty close to what black has um and at this point black played here which is what I think is the losing move okay um at this point uh black probably had to play in this corner this is locally it's a forcing move it threatens to capture these three stones with another move here M but that's that's about a um difference of 16 points okay so it's not really big enough when you have big it's actually only about the same sizes uh an extension on the side there and it's smaller than moves in this corner so it was sort of a careless mistake maybe and looking at this move I sort of wonder if um Lisa all was maybe it was fatigue because he was playing all those games in the nor nuning cup mhm um because it is a it is a um strange move to be playing so early since the white connection there is not forcing and and and with I mean this whole area here still so just to show so why don't we show you um what I think black should have done first I think black should have just played like this to live in the corner and now a move move like this which does take Black's eyes away can be countered with a move like this that connects black to the corner and the the good thing about this is that when white connects here later black will be able to answer that move and preserve his it's about 50 points in in this area so that's an important territory which in the game was reduced or where White had potential to reduce it which was very valuable and black has plenty of ter black has more territory than he did in the game on this side a lot more because he has the corner and white has a lot less there's there's a big difference in this case and I think black has a slight lead um it's a it's a game that would go to the end in the end game it white would not be so far behind that white would have to resign I think it would be a close game but I would be betting on black in this end game I would have to really I would have to study the end game to really know but that's my feeling uh what happened in the actual game let's just go to the actual game um black actually took the one stone after which now white connects here now this leaves the attachment here but it also threatens to take this corner big so black played here white played this this attachment once and black back down and then white played this yeah now you you that was a mistake that was definitely a mistake um white could have gotten the same result by crawling immediately immediately black would have and white would have had an extra Liberty here which would have made a big difference in the following you right but at that point it didn't actually have a direct effect on the game on the outcome of the game black answered that you've got the black oh I have to Black sorry and then white played here to capture these and it's a beautiful sequence because white took the territory the moment white got into danger White had the uh Tempo or the initiative the um the sent to move there and save his stones and with this whole sequence white has now established a leading territory the connection underneath here and extension here have become Mii that's interchangeable points and um I was having trouble counting it at the time but this point white wind is already pretty secure well if you look at at uh your variation uh you know this gets closed and black gets the corner and this white gets everything Whit gets this and so the big difference like if we assume a black move here since it's Black's Turner which actually this is the same as the game right uh the corner is just is changed to White territory so the big difference is in this corner there's a very slight difference white is um black has captured the one white stone so there there's a smaller difference here but a huge difference here uh which would make the game very close and I think it might be slightly in Black's favor now I mean in in in uh if he had played the variation in this case it's already and it's basically because you can't pay black can't pay the come right and in the end of the game when e lost resigned he was maybe ahead on the board it was close on the board um so maybe he was a point or so ahead on the board but um no way he could um pay the Comey right right it's an amazing game I mean it was just phenomenal because from from from this point uh when when alphago first played here it it felt uh that it had this plan yeah white was doing very well after that and white sort of knew that white had to accomplish something here and I guess one of the things I'm wondering uh knowing the whole game now uh is this simply about sort of you know from alphago's point of view just closing it down at that point it wasn't winning okay that's too early for that okay all right well that's a great analysis thank you so much um we will be uh back tomorrow with a commentary on the next game we'll be looking forward to seeing uh uh what least it all does I'm sort of hoping it's coming back yeah yeah we we want a we want a close match a close match so thank you very much Mike thank you\n"