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Does anyone have an idea how strong this in terms of stones?

AlphaGo could probably give it 9 stones and still win, 9p->5d. (Stones go non-linear around the pro ranks, so we can't just count the rank difference in the way we do as amateurs.)

OK, I see the reference now.

It's not even the strongest bot on KGS.

It seems like an indication that either they haven't incorporated the advances of AlphaGo or that Alpha succeeded through the investment of a huge amount of tuning time and processing power rather than through specific advances.

That's too much. Let's say Alpha Go is 9 dan pro or stronger. It would be 4 or 5 stones to a 6 dan amateur, one more stone to 5 dan. Let's say AG is a couple of stones stronger than the strongest humans. Still not nine stones handicap.

There is about a 3-stone difference between 9p and 1p, 1p is probably about 8d, and there is about a 3-stone difference between 8d and 5d. So in total 6+ stones (AlphaGo may be stronger than 9p, of course).

The version of AlphaGo that beat Fan Hui won 77% of games against the strong engine Crazy Stone giving a 4-stone handicap, even when running on a single machine. Crazy Stone has improved since then, though.

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