Computing "Elo Ratings" of Move Patterns in the Game of Go

Abstract. Move patterns are an essential method to incorporate domain knowledge into Go-playing programs. This paper presents a new Bayesian technique for supervised learning of such patterns from game records, based on a generalization of Elo ratings. Each sample move in the training data is considered as a victory of a team of pattern features. Elo ratings of individual pattern features are computed from these victories, and can be used in previously unseen positions to compute a probability distribution over legal moves. In this approach, several pattern features may be combined, without an exponential cost in the number of features. Despite a very small number of training games (652), this algorithm outperforms most previous pattern-learning algorithms, both in terms of mean log-evidence (−2.69), and prediction rate (34.9%). A 19 × 19 Monte-Carlo program improved with these patterns reached the level of the strongest classical programs.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: ICGA
• Authors: Rémi Coulom
• Keywords: Elo Ratings, Essential Method, ICGA 1997, ICGA 2007, Move Patterns