Modifications of UCT and sequence-like simulations for Monte-Carlo Go

Abstract

Algorithm UCB1 for multi-armed bandit problem has already been extended to algorithm UCT which works for minimax tree search. We have developed a Monte-Carlo program, MoGo, which is the first computer Go program using UCT. We explain our modification of UCT for Go application and also the sequence-like random simulation with patterns which has improved significantly the performance of MoGo. UCT combined with pruning techniques for large Go board is discussed, as well as parallelization of UCT. MoGo is now a top-level computer-Go program on 9 times 9 Go board