Supercomputer sets world record defeating professional Go players

Washington, May 15 (ANI): A French software called 'MoGo TITAN', which runs on the Dutch national supercomputer Huygens, has set a new world record by defeated two professional 'Go' players at the Taiwan Open 2009.

During the first two days of the event, MoGo TITAN has set two new world records by winning a 19x19 competition with a 7-stones handicap against the 9P dan professional Go player Jun-Xun Zhou, and a 19x19 competition with a 6-stones handicap against the 1P dan professional Go player Li-Chen Chien.

The latest record marks the second victory of Huygens playing Go against professional players.

The Huygens supercomputer achieved its first victory in August 2008 at the 24th Annual Congress of the Go competition, held in Portland, Oregon when the 8P dan human Go professional Kim MyungWan was defeated in an official match with a 9-stones handicap.

For a long time, Go has replaced chess as a test bed for research in artificial intelligence (AI) and is one of the last board games where humans are still able to easily win against AI.

"This new milestone in AI research once again clearly demonstrates the great potential of Huygens in many non-traditional areas of usage of Supercomputing," said Dr. Anwar Osseyran, SARA Managing Director.

Huygens, an IBM Power 575 Hydro-Cluster system, is the national supercomputer and located at SARA Computing and Networking Services in Amsterdam.

The Taiwan open was held in Taiwan from February 10-13. (ANI)