Late Nights with AlphaGo
by Anders Kierulf
2016-02-22
Google has announced times and time limits for Lee Sedol’s match against AlphaGo. Games start at 13:00 (UTC+9), which means they’ll start in the evening the day before in the US:
- Tuesday March 8: 8 p.m. PST, 11 p.m. EST
- Wednesday March 9: 8 p.m. PST, 11 p.m. EST
- Friday March 11: 8 p.m. PST, 11 p.m. EST
- Saturday March 12: 8 p.m. PST, 11 p.m. EST
- Monday March 14: 9 p.m. PST, midnight EST (DST!)
And Michael Redmond 9p will be commenting in English. Mark your calendars and stock up on popcorn.
Time limits are two hours per player, plus 3x1-minute byo-yomi. Thus after basic time is up, players can use up to a minute for every move; three times they can spend an extra minute. The article says each game is thus expected to last 4-5 hours, but if AlphaGo uses its full two hours (instead of playing very fast as in the Fan Hui match), it could easily go longer. Be prepared for some late nights.
I’m glad they increased the time limits from the Fan Hui match; this should be a very exciting match. Just one new tidbit since my Lee Sedol vs AlphaGo blog post — on the Computer Go mailing list, Aja Huang commented today: “We are still preparing hard for the match. … AlphaGo is getting stronger and stronger.”