The Japan Times on-line 20111102 and Shogi
Alain Vanhentenryck
It is about Shogi, JSA, Yonnega, Shimizu, Eiki Ito & Bonkras.
I hope you enjoy it.
Alain Vanhentenryck (Belgium).
http : // www . japantimes . co . jp/text/nc20111102a1 . html
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Shōgi showdown for supercomputer
By TOMOKO OTAKE
Staff writer
Eiki Ito, 49, started programming a shōgi (Japanese chess) computer in
1998, because back then, he says, his job with an IT firm wasn't
keeping him busy enough. Thirteen years later, his pet machine boasts
a computing ability of 4 million moves per second. And it may well
soon beat one of the strongest shōgi players Japan has ever produced.
/* PHOTO
Get with the program: Eiki Ito, creator of Bonkras, the computer
program that will challenge shogi master Kunio Yonenaga, on Jan. 14,
2012. SATOKO KAWASAKI PHOTO */
Come Jan. 14 next year, Ito, or rather his computer, named Bonkras,
will fight head-on with Kunio Yonenaga, a retired professional shōgi
master who heads the mighty Japan Shōgi Association (JSA). If the
computer — whose name was taken from a Japanese manga character and is
a spin on the word bonkura, meaning "dim-witted" — wins the match, it
would signal the arrival of a new era in the 400-odd-year history of
shōgi, a two-player board game with an estimated 12 million fans
around the country.
While computer chess programs have long since proved their supremacy
over humans — with the IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer defeating the
then-grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997 — shōgi's professional players
have so far avoided the embarrassment. Experts say shōgi is a more
complex game than chess and is therefore harder for computers to
learn, because in shōgi, players can re-use opponents' pieces as their
own after taking them. But there is another aspect to it.
The JSA, while long supporting and sponsoring the development of
computer shōgi games, has tried hard to keep its professional players
from falling into the trap that chess players have. In 2005, as
Yonenaga realized that the threat of shōgi computers beating humans
was imminent, he banned the association's professionals from playing
with computers in public unless "organizers pay a sponsorship fee of
at least ¥100 million per game" — thus limiting the pros' exposure.
"If a professional shōgi player wins a match against a computer, it's
no news. But when a pro loses, it turns into a big deal," Yonenaga
said in an interview published in the January 2011 issue of the
monthly magazine Chuo Koron, explaining his 2005 decision.
So far, the association has approved only two man-versus-computer
matches since 2005, and results have been mixed. In a 2007 match,
Akira Watanabe, a title-holding shōgi player, kept the JSA's
reputation intact by beating Bonanza, a program developed by physical
chemist Kunihito Hoki. Bonanza, which incorporated some of chess
computers' features, had won the World Computer Shōgi Championship the
year before.
But three years later, when Ichiyo Shimizu, a female shōgi master
picked by the shōgi association, took up the challenge, she lost to
Akara 2010, a mighty program developed by the Information Processing
Society of Japan.
This time, Ito's Bonkras has been picked, following its victory at the
21st World Computer Shōgi Championship, organized by the Tokyo-based
Computer Shōgi Association and held in May. And the 68-year-old
Yonenaga — still one of the biggest names in shōgi despite having
retired from the game eight years ago — has named himself the
contender for the match.
Interestingly, it is not just the computing speed that determines a
shōgi program's strength, says Ito, who works at Fujitsu
Semiconductor, a 100-percent-owned subsidiary of the IT giant Fujitsu.
(While requiring IT knowledge, Ito's current job is not related to
computer programming.)
Bonkras has three PCs networked together, which respectively have
simulating capacities of 1.7 million, 1.4 million and 1.2 million
moves per second. In the world championship in May, which Ito entered
for the seventh time, Bonkras beat a rival software running on more
than 200 PCs.
So what is the key to Bonkras' success?
"When you connect computers, it's easy to just to connect them, but
it's difficult to make them work efficiently together," Ito said in a
recent interview with The Japan Times. "For example, when you divide
tasks among three computers, there is a chance that one machine might
be working at 100 percent capacity, while the other two might be
working at a combined 5 percent, so altogether they're working at only
105 percent capacity (against the total capacity of 300 percent). The
key is to raise the computers' efficiency to, say, 100, 70 and 80
percent, altogether achieving a combined ability of 250 percent."
Ito's program uses a search algorithm called "alpha-beta pruning,"
through which it picks only the good moves out of all simulated moves
and explores them further ahead, while giving up on bad moves as
quickly as possible. In the old days, some programmers used to
manually key in an "evaluation function" to each move, but Ito has
made his computer read data from some 50,000 games — ones actually
played by top professional players — in order to help the program make
the right choices. And indeed, the quality of games memorized
determines the quality of the program, he said.
/* PHOTO
Your move: Professional shogi players offer expert analysis during the
finals of the 21st World Computer Shogi Championship in Tokyo in May.
Bonkras, a shogi-playing computer developed by Eiki Ito, beat seven
other finalists to win the championship title. ©ASAKO YAMAZAKI
PHOTO */
"If you let computers memorize game records of weak players, the
computers would naturally think that those are the good moves," he
said.
Asked about his computer's chance of winning, Ito says he genuinely
cannot predict the outcome, because that's actually up to how far
Yonenaga will be retrained in time for the January match. At present,
top shōgi programs like Bonkras are currently at a level of lower- to
middle-class professional players, he says.
Eventually, though, computers will beat the greatest shōgi players,
Ito says rather matter-of-factly. Does that mean the ebbing popularity
of the game will suffer further? He doesn't think so.
"Shōgi programs and shōgi players are comparable to cars and runners,"
Ito said. "We all know that cars are much faster, but we still enjoy
watching track and field athletics in the Olympics. Computers also
beat humans at chess, but the chess players' championships are still
popular."
But for Ito himself, after beating a top shōgi player, he said he
would probably move on to programming other games.
"My master plan is, if a shōgi computer triumphs over humans, I would
start programming go, and when I'm done with go, I'd move on to
mahjongg," he said, noting that programming complexities rise in that
order. "Though, by that time, I might be too old to accomplish that!"
The Yonenaga vs Bonkras match will be held at Tokyo's Shōgi Kaikan
from 10 a.m. on Jan. 14, 2012. The match can be seen live on Nico Nico
Doga. Co-organizer of the match, Dwango, also plans to host a live
event at Nicofarre in Tokyo's Roppongi district. For more information,
visit
info . nicovideo . jp/shogi/ (Japanese only).