Master is a version of

DeepMind DeepMind Technologies is a British artificial intelligence subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. and research laboratory founded in 2010. DeepMind was acquired by Google in 2014 and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, after Google's restru ...

Go software There is an abundance of go software available to support players of the game of Go. This includes software programs that play Go themselves, programs that can be used to view and/or edit game records and diagrams, programs that allow the user ...

AlphaGo AlphaGo is a computer program that plays the board game Go. It was developed by DeepMind Technologies a subsidiary of Google (now Alphabet Inc.). Subsequent versions of AlphaGo became increasingly powerful, including a version that competed u ...

, named after the account name (originally Magister/Magist) used online, which won 60 straight online games against human

professional Go players A Go professional is a professional player of the game of Go. The minimum standard to acquire a professional diploma through one of the major Go organisations is very high. The competition is tremendous, and prize incentives for champion players ...

from 29 December 2016 to 4 January 2017. This version was also used in the

Future of Go Summit The Future of Go Summit () was held in May 2017 by the Chinese Go Association, Sport Bureau of Zhejiang Province and Google in Wuzhen, Zhejiang, the permanent host of the World Internet Conference. It featured five Go games involving AlphaGo and ...

in May 2017. It used four TPUs on a single machine with Elo rating 4,858. DeepMind claimed that AlphaGo Master was 3-stone stronger than the version used in

AlphaGo v. Lee Sedol AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol, also known as the Google DeepMind Challenge Match, was a five-game Go match between top Go player Lee Sedol and AlphaGo, a computer Go program developed by Google DeepMind, played in Seoul, South Korea between 9 and ...

. DeepMind released a version of AlphaGo Master in December 2017 that serves as a teaching tool analyzing the win rates of 6,000

Go openings A Go opening refers to the initial moves of a game of Go (game), Go. On the traditional Go (board game), 19×19 board the opening phase of the game usually lasts between 15 and 40 Ply (game theory), plies. There is some specialised terminology ...

from 230,000 human games.

Matches

Online games

The software was first used to play games against professional players on 29 December 2016 on the Tygem Go server, under the account name 'Magister' (shown as 'Magist' at the server's Chinese version). The account name was changed to 'Master' on 30 December. After playing 30 games on Tygem, it was moved to the FoxGo server on 1 January 2017. Master played at the pace of 10 games per day. Many quickly suspected it to be an AI player due to little or no resting between games. After winning its 59th game it was revealed in the chatroom that Master was controlled by Aja Huang of the

team. On 4 January 2017, after these games were completed,

Demis Hassabis Demis Hassabis (born 27 July 1976) is a British artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur. In his early career he was a video game AI programmer and designer, and an expert player of board games. He is the chief executive officer and ...

, the co-founder of DeepMind, confirmed that Magister and Master both played using an updated version of AlphaGo and said, "We're looking forward to playing some official, full-length games later n 2017in collaboration with Go organizations and experts". Gu Li, a 9-dan player and co-founder of FoxGo, offered a bounty of 100,000

RMB The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022 ...

(14,400

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

) to the first human player who could defeat Master. However, no one took the bounty since Master's final online record was 60 wins and 0 losses, including three victories over Go's top ranked player,

Ke Jie Ke Jie () is a Chinese professional Go player of 9 dan rank. He was born on August 2, 1997 in Liandu District, Lishui City, Zhejiang Province. Career 2008–15: Early Career and Bailing Cup Breakthrough Ke Jie started to learn how to pla ...

, who had been quietly briefed in advance that Master was a version of AlphaGo. Master's adversaries included many world champions such as

, Park Jeong-hwan,

Yuta Iyama is a Japanese professional Go player. In April 2016, he became the first player in Japanese history to hold all seven major titles simultaneously. In January 2018, Iyama became the first professional Go player to be awarded Japan's People' ...

Tuo Jiaxi Tuo Jiaxi (born 15 January 1991) is a Chinese professional Go player. Tuo became a professional in 2002. He was promoted to 2 dan in 2004 and reached 3 dan in 2005. He won his first professional title with the Mind Sports Games Male Fast Game ...

Mi Yuting Mi Yuting (; born 8 January 1996) is a Chinese professional go player. As of Oct 2018, he is ranking 1st in Go ratings with an Elo rating of 3645. Promotion record Titles and runners-up Head-to-head record vs selected players ''Players ...

, Shi Yue,

Chen Yaoye Chen Yaoye (Traditional: 陳耀燁; Simplified: 陈耀烨; Pinyin: Chén Yàoyè; born on December 16, 1989) is a Chinese professional Go player. Biography Chen Yaoye was born in Beijing, China. He is a young Go player who, at the age of 1 ...

, Li Qincheng, Gu Li, Chang Hao, Tang Weixing,

Fan Tingyu Fan Tingyu (born 6 August 1996) is a Chinese professional Go player. He won the 17th Xinren Wang and 18th Xinren Wang. Fan defeated Park Junghwan (b. 1993) -1in the final of the 7th (2012/13) Ing Cup, and became the youngest Ing Cup title ...

Zhou Ruiyang Zhou Ruiyang (; born March 8, 1991) is a Chinese professional Go player. Biography Zhou began playing Go at the age of 7. He won the biggest amateur tournament in China, the Wanbao Cup, both the same year before he became a professiona ...

Jiang Weijie Jiang Weijie (born 17 October 1991) is a Chinese professional Go player. Jiang became a professional in 2005. He won his first title, the RICOH Xinxiu Cup, in 2008. Jiang ended Gu Li's six-year reign over the Mingren The Mingren () is a Go ...

Chou Chun-hsun Chou Chun-hsun ( Taiwanese POJ: Chiu Chùn-hun; born February 23, 1980) is a Go player."Youngsters dominate Ing Cup". Xinhua News Agency. April 22, 2004 (via Lexis-Nexis). Retrieved February 13, 2010. Biography Chou was born in Taipei ...

, Kim Ji-seok, Kang Dong-yun, Park Yeong-hun, and Won Seong-jin, and also included national champions or world championship runners-up such as Lian Xiao, Tan Xiao, Meng Tailing, Dang Yifei, Huang Yunsong,

Yang Dingxin Yang Dingxin (; born 19 October 1998) is a Chinese professional Go player. Biography Yang Dingxin was born in 1998 in Zhengzhou, Henan. As a young child, he lived in Bingcha in Rudong County, Nantong, Jiangsu and in Zhengzhou, and moved to Bei ...

, Gu Zihao, Shin Jinseo, Cho Han-seung, and An Sungjoon. All 60 games except one were fast-paced games with three 20 or 30 seconds

byo-yomi A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game clock, ...

. Master offered to extend the byo-yomi to one minute when playing with

Nie Weiping Nie Weiping (; born 17 August 1952) is a professional Go player. Biography Born in Shenzhou, Nie began learning Go at the age of nine and won the inaugural World Amateur Go Championship in 1979. Nie was given 9 dan rank in 1982. He becam ...

due to his old age.

Future of Go Summit

The Master version also participated in the Future of Go summit in May 2017. It defeated

in a three-game match by three to zero and beat a human team with five top Go professionals.

Innovative moves

Go experts were extremely impressed by Master's performance and by its non-human play style in its online games. Ke Jie stated, "After humanity spent thousands of years improving our tactics, computers tell us that humans are completely wrong... I would go as far as to say not a single human has touched the edge of the truth of Go". Master played many innovative moves and inspired professional players. In the 23rd online game Master invaded the 3-3 point at a very early stage. In the 24th online game Master played six stones along the second line.

Operator errors

On 20 January 2017, DeepMind team members

Fan Hui Fan Hui (; born 27 December 1981) is a Chinese-born French Go player. Becoming a professional Go player in 1996, Fan moved to France in 2000 and became the coach of the French national Go team in 2005. He was the winner of the European Go Champi ...

and Aja Huang disclosed that Master's operator accidentally entered a move other than AlphaGo's choice in two situations during the online games. In the 9th online game, Master recommended point ''a'' for Move 107. In the 39th online game, Master recommended point ''a'' for Move 99.

Example game

Online game 30: Master (white) v.

Tang Weixing Tang Weixing (; born 15 January 1993) is a Chinese professional go player. He has won three international titles, with two championships in the Samsung Cup (2013, 2019) and one in the Ing Cup (2016). Early life Tang Weixing was born in Guiyan ...

(31 December 2016), Master won by resignation. White 36 was widely praised.

References

{{Go (game) Go engines AlphaGo 2016 software 2016 in go 2017 in go