computer science

Gomocup

Gomocup is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Gomocup rather than just read about it. In short: Gomocup is a worldwide tournament of artificial intelligences (AI) playing Gomoku and Renju. The tournament has been played since 2000 and takes place every year.

Key takeaways

Gomocup belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Gomocup to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Gomocup from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Gomocup is a worldwide tournament of artificial intelligences (AI) playing Gomoku and Renju. The tournament has been played since 2000 and takes place every year. As of 2016, it is the most famous and largest Gomoku AI tournament in the world, with around 40 participants from about 10 countries.

Rules Gomocup has been played in the freestyle Gomoku rule with the board size of 20 since it was started in 2000. In 2009, the standard Gomoku rule was added into Gomocup as a tournament, in which the board size is 15 and more than five in a row is not considered to be a win. In 2016, the Renju rule was also added into Gomocup, with a board size of 15 and forbidden moves for black. In particular, since there are a large number of participants in the freestyle Gomoku tournament, the freestyle Gomoku tournament is divided into several leagues, and the fast game tournament is introduced. To get rid of the fact that there is a winning strategy for the player who plays first in Gomoku, balanced openings have been prepared by Gomoku experts since 2006. Games would be started from these balanced openings, and neither side would have a big advantage from the very beginning.

AI vs. Human Tournament There were two AI vs. Human tournaments held in the Czech Republic in 2006 and 2011. In 2006, the top 3 programs in Gomocup had a tournament with 3 of the top 10 players in Piškvorky online. There were 2 games between each pair of AI and human players. The result was one win, one draw and one loss for AIs, and the total score was 3:3. In 2011, the tournament was between the top 4 programs in Gomocup and 4 players at the top of the Czech Gomoku rating list. Similar to the 1st tournament, there were 2 games between each pair of AI. This time there were 3 draws and 1 win for AIs, and the total score was 5:3.

Elo Rating The Elo rating system for Gomocup was built in 2016 and calculated with all the historical tournament results ever since. The rating is calculated with the open-source tool BayesElo, with a few parameters modified to get adapted to the Gomoku game. There is a rating list for each game rule. The Elo ratings are updated every year after the Gomocup tournament finishes.

Results The results for the Gomocup tournaments since 2000 is in the following.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gomocup

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gomocup claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Gomocup before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Gomocup ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Gomocup

In research: Gomocup appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Gomocup in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Gomocup is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Computer board games competitions, Game artificial intelligence, Gomoku, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gomocup outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Gomocup in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Gomocup means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Gomocup out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gomocup in simple terms?

Gomocup is a worldwide tournament of artificial intelligences (AI) playing Gomoku and Renju. The tournament has been played since 2000 and takes place every year.

Why does Gomocup matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Gomocup?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Gomocup.