I've been taking a look at bots and joseki again.

The below sgf is kind of an intermediate result from some of these investigations. While there are issues and limitations to it's usefulness I wonder if some would find it interesting?

The sgf is a tree of joseki sequences with each move annotated with the frequency with which the AI (Elfv2) chooses each of the moves as it's next local move over a wide range of pro board positions.
more detail on the method:


One reason for doing this kind of thing is that although bots are focused on local efficiency, they also play well for the whole board. You can set up a simple board position and show that a bot consideres a specific move x bad as it looses 4% but the bot might consider the move x optimal in a different board position. This aims loosely to capture most of the sequences that the bot thinks are ever top choice.



I will probably post a couple of specific things I found interesting and would encourage anyone interested to share their thoughts

Here's one that I feel like I learned something from:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$c A 35% of the time \nB 17%\nC 13%\nD 13%..
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . X . . g
$$ | . e d X b . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . O . c . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . X . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . a . . . . . .[/go]

I was looking at this tenuki position.
It looks a little bit like move A is a semi-tenuki (although looking at the follow-ups this is definitely part of the local sequence) and so the most frequent move directly relating to the corner would be attaching in the knight's move at move B. I remember this move from handicap games where white is hoping that black will passively allow white to make some nice outside shape:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc White is too happy for the good shape.
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . 4 6 2 X . . .
$$ | . . 3 X 1 . . . .
$$ | . . . 5 . . . . .
$$ | . . O . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . X . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

I'm not sure I remember the response i was told to try when I was playing handicap games (2 below 1 maybe?)

I tried adding a larger number of board positions and it turns out that move B is a little less popular with the bot as this suggests. it looks like b is a very popular choice when there is a two space extension for black on the left hand side (black has C9)
Here are the board positions sorted by the bot choice:



The bot follow up always starts:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Wc Bot starts..
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . 2 . X . . .
$$ | . . . X 1 . . . .
$$ | . . . 3 . . . . .
$$ | . . O . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . X . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

If black is very strong then he may now choose to play on the outside and try to attack the whole thing, but black most often cuts:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc Usually black cuts
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . X . X . . .
$$ | . . . X O 2 . . .
$$ | . . . O 1 . . . .
$$ | . . O . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . X . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

The most common follow up seems to be:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc Most common sequence
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . 5 3 4 . . .
$$ | . . . X 2 X 6 . .
$$ | . c d X O O . . .
$$ | . . . O X . b . .
$$ | . . O . 1 . e . .
$$ | . . . a . . . . .
$$ | . . X . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

Black then usually needs to fix at a. If black chooses instead to take b then white can either play a herself or play c or d for some kind of life. Even if black fixes there seems to be a lot of aji for white to get a ko or seki in the corner as well as that nice ponnuki towards the top side.

Black may instead choose to fix up the corner stones for one of those pushing from behind chicken scenarios:

Click Here To Show Diagram Code

[go]$$Bc A mess
$$ ------------------
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .
$$ | . . . X 1 X . . .
$$ | . . . X O O 4 . .
$$ | . . . O X 3 . . .
$$ | . . O . 2 5 . . .
$$ | . . . . 6 7 . . .
$$ | . . X . 8 9 . . .
$$ | . . . . 0 . . . .
$$ | . . . . . . . . .[/go]

I may end up using it inappropriately but I have added a tool to my toolkit!