ICGA Journal: The Journal of the Computer Games Community

This article describes how the program The Many Faces of Go statically evaluates eyes in the game of Go. Eyes are represented as a small game tree with upper and lower bounds on the values of the leaf nodes, along with a list of vital points.

This article examines the outward influence of a wall in the game of Go. It is concluded that there should be an increase of three mokus (points) for the increase of one line of the height. The related practice in some Go programs designed by the author is shown, and the results of the estimation of the influence of a wall in the programs are discussed.

Position evaluation is a critical component of Go programs. This article describes both the exact and the heuristic methods for position evaluation that are used in the Go program Explorer, and outlines some requirements for developing better Go evaluation functions in the future.