Qualla: AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol https://qualla.com/alphago-versus-lee-sedol en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:39 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/d/m/alphago-versus-lee-sedol-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol https://qualla.com/alphago-versus-lee-sedol AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol: Introduction https://qualla.com/alphago-versus-lee-sedol/ Photo credit Alzinous, CC BY-SA 4.0. Lee Sedol predicted he would win in a landslide. The 33-year-old South Korean, holder of 18 international titles and widely considered one of the greatest Go players in history, had been playing the game professionally since the age of 12. His opponent had never held a stone. AlphaGo, built by Google's DeepMind laboratory, was a neural network that had taught itself Go by studying 30 million moves from 160,000 human games and then playing millions more against itself. When the two faced each other across a Go board at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul in March 2016, the match was livestreamed to a global audience. Experts had said this moment was ten years away. It arrived in five games.

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/d/m/alphago-versus-lee-sedol-wp/wydm-alphago-versus-lee-sedol-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol: The Last Fortress https://qualla.com/alphago-versus-lee-sedol/ Photo credit Alzinous, CC BY-SA 4.0. Go is not chess. Chess has roughly 10 to the power of 120 possible game positions. Go, played on a 19-by-19 grid with black and white stones, has approximately 10 to the power of 170 -- more possible configurations than there are atoms in the observable universe. The game demands...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/d/m/alphago-versus-lee-sedol-wp/wydm-alphago-versus-lee-sedol-the-last-fortress.mp3 0:06 2 full AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol: Move 37 https://qualla.com/alphago-versus-lee-sedol/ Photo credit Alzinous, CC BY-SA 4.0. AlphaGo won the first game, and Lee appeared stunned. He told reporters afterward that from the very beginning, he never felt like he was leading. The second game deepened the shock. AlphaGo made a move -- move 37 -- that no human player would have considered. Professional commen...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/d/m/alphago-versus-lee-sedol-wp/wydm-alphago-versus-lee-sedol-move-37.mp3 0:06 3 full AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol: Game Four: The Human Strikes Back https://qualla.com/alphago-versus-lee-sedol/ Photo credit Alzinous, CC BY-SA 4.0. Then Lee Sedol played move 78 of game four. It was a placement so unexpected, so precisely disruptive, that AlphaGo's evaluation of the board position swung wildly. The machine, which had appeared serene and methodical through three victories, began making errors. Lee pressed the...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/d/m/alphago-versus-lee-sedol-wp/wydm-alphago-versus-lee-sedol-game-four-the-human-strikes-back.mp3 0:06 4 full AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol: After the Board Was Cleared https://qualla.com/alphago-versus-lee-sedol/ Photo credit Alzinous, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Korea Baduk Association awarded AlphaGo an honorary 9 dan rank -- the highest grandmaster designation in Go -- in recognition of its "sincere efforts" to master the game. Lee received $170,000 for his participation. The $1 million prize for the match winner went to charity, i...

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]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/y/d/m/alphago-versus-lee-sedol-wp/wydm-alphago-versus-lee-sedol-after-the-board-was-cleared.mp3 0:06 5 full