Local Move Prediction in Go

Abstract

The paper presents a system that learns to predict local strong expert moves in the game of Go at a level comparable to that of strong human kyu players. This performance is achieved by four techniques. First, our training algorithm is based on a relative-target approach that avoids needless weight adaptations characteristic of most neural-network classifiers. Second, we reduce dimensionality through state-of-the-art feature extraction, and present two new feature-extraction methods, the Move Pair Analysis and the Modified Eigenspace Separation Transform. Third, informed pre-processing is used to reduce state-space complexity and to focus the feature extraction on important features. Fourth, we introduce and apply second-phase training, i.e., the retraining of the trained network with an augmented input constituting all pre-processed features. Experiments suggest that local move prediction will be a significant factor in enhancing the strength of Go programs.