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Definition of skill in games

Dutch professor Ben van der Genugten has created a formula for calculating the skill level of a game. He has used it in Dutch courts to help determine that fantasy sports games are games of skill and now he's using...

Posted by Mikko on October 3, 2008 2:07 PM

Year metric

I've been a fan of Matthew Gray's month metric. Now I happened unto his Every year 2007 update, focusing on the year metric. I haven't been bothering with that, believing I wouldn't have many high-scoring games. Well, I thought, why...

Posted by Mikko on January 1, 2008 12:32 PM

Teaching Go

Way of teaching Go is an instructional article describing a method of teaching Go to children (guess why I'm blogging this).Go--> The article suggests playing Atari-Go (or Ponnuki-Go), which seems to be the recommended method of teaching Go to...

Posted by Mikko on August 14, 2007 6:27 AM

Through the Desert vs Go

There's a long rant at the Game Table about Through the Desert vs Go, where he goes to show that Through the Desert has absolutely nothing to do with Go, and thus the games shouldn't be compared. Through the Desert...

Posted by Mikko on October 20, 2005 2:07 PM

Games and artificial intelligence

Yesterday I watched a bit of a documentary about Garry Kasparov and how he lost a match to IBM's Deep Blue. As the story goes, Deep Blue pulled an untypical move in the second game, causing Kasparov to lose. After...

Posted by Mikko on December 2, 2004 1:40 PM

Little Golem

I recently registered at Little Golem. It's a play-by-web site featuring a selection of games. StreetSoccer should be of interest to some (looks like Iain tried it), I'm there mostly to play Go. The interface is inferior to my regular...

Posted by Mikko on August 21, 2004 1:59 PM

Monday game session

Typical Monday session: we played Go. Juho kicked my butt twice, partially thanks to some rather grueling mistakes I made.Go--> However, by then Ari had joined us and I was finally able to test out my Black Vienna deck....

Posted by Mikko on May 24, 2004 3:05 PM

Today's games: BSW and live

I played a game of San Juan at Brettspielwelt this morning. This time there were four players, so I got some feel of the game with more players. It works as smoothly as the two-player game, with extra thought required...

Posted by Mikko on May 10, 2004 3:08 PM

Monday Go Session

This time we had a proper games meet. We started with two games of Huutopussi, both of which were won hands-down by Juho. I don't know how he does it, but he's rather superior in the game. Memorable moments of...

Posted by Mikko on May 3, 2004 3:24 PM

Short Go session

It's been a while since the last Go session. This resulted in just one player in addition to me. What's worse, Ari had to leave for a lecture after one game and I didn't quite feel like waiting for...

Posted by Mikko on April 26, 2004 12:06 PM

Monday session: Go, cards and piecepack

What a sad day today. I played three games of Go against Juho and lost all of them. I played black each time and in the last game even got one handicap stone. Ah, sadness.Go--> Then Ilari came to...

Posted by Mikko on April 5, 2004 6:00 PM

Stones and cards

Another Monday session. This time I played seven games of Go with Juho. In the first five games, I played white and Juho black without any handicap. For the last two games, I gave Juho white stones. I won...

Posted by Mikko on March 29, 2004 4:57 PM

Adventures in KGS

Once again I play Go and get my ass kicked by lower-ranked opponents. Of course it only means my rating is still too high... Rating players is certainly an interesting and fuzzy subject. I doubt there can be a...

Posted by Mikko on March 23, 2004 5:41 PM

Go

Two more games of Go at KGS. Lost both of them. In the first one I just played badly, second one was more close. It was rather exciting match for interesting reasons: when we started the game, server was...

Posted by Mikko on March 22, 2004 9:35 AM

Online Go

Ok, so I go online at KGS to play some Go, and who I meet? Juho! My regular Monday games opponent! It was certainly interesting... Juho has a KGS ranking of 21k, I was 12k. When we play face-to-face,...

Posted by Mikko on March 19, 2004 3:09 PM

Go Quitters

I played three games of Go today at the KGS. I won all three, but my satisfaction is dimmed by the nature of my victories. All three were resignations. The first two were kind of ok, because I was...

Posted by Mikko on March 16, 2004 4:01 PM

Lahti games weekend, Friday

Another Lahti gaming weekend is over now. Organised by Peter Munter of Puolenkuun Pelit, the event is rather merry occasion. The participants were all-male invite-only group of friends and friends of friends. The average age of the players is probably...

Posted by Mikko on March 15, 2004 9:27 AM

Another Monday session: Go, Gang of Four

This Monday our session began with two games of Go against Juho. Juho had been playing elsewhere, where he was approximated as 18 kyu player. That would make me 17 or 16 kyu. That sounds pretty good. This time I...

Posted by Mikko on March 9, 2004 3:02 PM

Monday games: Go, prototype

Yet another Monday games session! This one started with a game of Go against Juho. Yet again I lost giving two stone handicap, so obviously that's too much (or then I just play sloppy). The most interesting part of this...

Posted by Mikko on March 1, 2004 5:47 PM

Monday games: Flaschenteufel

Yesterday we met for another Monday afternoon gaming session. Naturally we played Go - I faced Juho on a 19x19 game and won, but only with a margin of two points. The card game of the day was Flaschenteufel, which...

Posted by Mikko on February 24, 2004 7:02 PM