What is going through Lee Sedol's mind, watching this? Does he wish he was the guy getting the later crack at the more advanced version we see today, or has he come to terms with his single victory against AlphaGo a year ago?
If these questions seem nonsensical it all, please feel free to reformulate them to something that has a more interesting answer.
I dont think he wants to play alphago again. Go is a game that relies a lot on confidence: professional players almost never play amateur players casually, for example. Thats because if they lose to an amateur player, it will affect their mindset, their confidence, and they could then perform worse in the real professional tournament.
An argentinian amateur beat 2 strong professionals back then in 2001 in a major professional tournament: it was a huge sensation. Those two professionals basically disappeared from high ranking tournaments forever. It was said that the setback was so severe it affected them permanently(purely hearsay).
Its not good for a professional to play a game he thinks he will lose.
Sheesh, are their ego's really so brittle?
He would scout talent in the country and once found a couple of brothers that played go. He played a game with the eldest, and he beat the eldest. He accepted his defeat quickly and offered Kitani to play again, that he wanted revenge.
Kitani politely refused and played his younger brother. Kitan wins again, but the youngest bursts into crying. He was deeply upset at the loss and could not play another game even if he wanted to.
Who do you think Kitani recommended to follow the path of a professional Go Player?
After playing move 2, i realized that i had become strong enugh to read the game until the outcome was decided. Its not like i was 9x9 perfect player, but i had enough reading power to count the score with an empty board.
It would take me 20-30 minutes to finish the game. I won that small tournament knowing exactly the score of each game and when i was losing and turned around games. After that, i never played 9x9 again. I dont like it, becuase i know i can lplay very well, but its a tremendous effort that i dont want to do.
A professional has to save face against an amateur, because losing would affect his reputation, his mindset etc. So a pro would be more reluctant to play a strong player than a weak player, where he might be able to use less effort.
A short way of putting it: professionals dont play for fun, so why would they play for free for anyone?
But fun is probably what got you guys into this game, right?
I got what you meant but for a lot of people it will probably read like it's not a pleasurable activity for you guys anymore.
A counter-example would be a pro Soccer playing saying he never plays casual matches with his friends anymore because he earns to do it. That does not happen and I believe it's the same with you guys in Go, right?
Thank you for answering all the questions and doubts, I've been reading everything and it's been a blast :)
OTOH, I know collegiate soccer players that can't handle "stepping down" to local rec leagues. They learn an aggressiveness appropriate to the one domain, and can't turn it off in the other. I consider that a maturity issue, but it is an issue for people accustomed to one level of performance and competition trying to step into another.
Once you step into the professional aspect, you do not enjoy the game anymore. Its a passion thing. If you wanted to spend more time on the board at any point, it would be studying, not goofing around playing.
> But fun is probably what got you guys into this game, right?
Hardly. Almsot all professional players were exposed to the game at 4 years old, more like indoctrination. And as a grown up, if you start late (like I did, at 16), when you dream of professionality, the joy goes away, its more like a passionate driven goal of self sacrifice.
That's interesting, any ideas where this attitude comes from? I feel like that's the opposite of a lot of other sports and games, where the ability to take a bad loss and come back improved is seen as an important skill.
To play go well you need balance. It requires intense emotional training. Any feeling you have during a game must be reigned in immediately because it will cloud your judgemnet and it does so in a way you cant understand.
Think of Go as a conversation. Lets stay you are having a civil conversation about a topic with someone, and the other person throws an insult in the middle. Will your next messages look the same as the ones before? Of course not, because you will be rattled, or offended, or something, and thus the tone and content of your messages will change immediately.
If that happens to you in Go, you are on a path of self destruction.
So losing a game to an amateur could be something in your mind, as an insult, that just modifies you a bit, even just temporary. But it does, so you feel contaminated.