Google's DeepMind AlphaGo AI won the third game in a row against legendary Go player Lee Sedol.
After making 176 moves, AlphaGo won by resignation and had 8:31 left on the clock. The AI Go contender from Google played as white in the match, and managed to create a large territory on the board.
Lee, on the other hand, has used up all of his allotted match time including two periods of "byo-yomi" overtime. He was seen as using some innovative tactics in the game, which seemed different from his previous playing style.
"It's arguable that in the first two games Lee Sedol was playing differently than his true style, trying to find a weakness in the computer," said Michael Redmond, 9-dan, the American commentator in the match. "Today Lee was definitely playing his own game, from his strong opening to the complicated moves in the final kō."
The game of Go had its origins in China and is considered to be more than 2,500 years old. The game rules are rather straightforward: Two players take their turns on placing the black or white stones on a board with the aim of capturing the adversary's stones or surrounding an empty space to establish a territory.
Go gamers need not only a solid strategy, but also good intuition and feel in order to play successfully.
When asked for a comment on the match, Sedol, who spoke with the help of a translator, said that as he looked back, he found it impossible to win the game's first match because he had underestimated the gaming capacities of the computer-generated opponent. Sedol also took note of the missed opportunities during the second match. Then, in the third match, Sedol admitted the tremendous amount of pressure that he felt when playing the game.
While AlphaGo AI swept three matches out of the total five, the final two matches will continue as scheduled.
The final two matches are scheduled on March 13 and 15 and will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, South Korea. The events will be livestreamed through the YouTube channel of DeepMind, with each match expected to last for 4 to 5 hours. The last two remaining games will be played in order to determine the final match score.
"Lee Sedol played well," said Lee Hyunwook, 8-dan, one of the Korean commentators in the game. "Lee made a few diverse moves at the end of today's game to understand more about AlphaGo. I look forward to remaining games as well."
