Author: Jiang Zhujiu Jiudan, former Go player.
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I met Dr. Elwyn Berlekamp in 1990, a mathematical genius with great achievements. He loves Go and has a deep knowledge of official titles. Later, he also learned chess with me.
Elwyn Berlekamp
Erwin believes that although the charm of Go lies in its uncertainty, if the value of each hand can be expressed in numbers, then the understanding and exploration of Go will be further advanced. Theoretically, at least at the official stage, his ideas were feasible.
For a long time, Erwin devoted himself to the study of combining mathematics and Go officials. Now, as long as the professional chess player provides the correct official hand, he can quickly mark the specific mesh. In 1998, Erwin spent a lot of time studying a game of chess between me and (Rui) Naiwei. Later, he published his research in a prestigious mathematical journal.
Jiang Zhujiu and his wife Rui Naiwei
After we went to Korea in 1999 to play chess, we played a mathematical card chess performance game at a mathematical conference at the University of Berkeley at the invitation of Erwin. Many mathematicians interested in chess across the country watched the exhibition game.
The results of the game of chess were written by Elwin's assistants and published in more games of No Chance, a mathematical journal published at cambridge university.
In 2007, Erwin held a mathematical card chess tournament in South Korea, with 6 professional chess players participating, in addition to the two of us, including Won Seung-jin, Ahn Joo-yong, Song Tae-kun, and Han Sang-hoon. The result of the competition was that AnZuoyong won the championship.
I think that if the same event can be held in China, then the impact of Chinese Go on the global mathematical community, as well as the popularity of Go in the world, will play a positive role. On January 3 and 4, 2009, the "Cast Jiu Cup" was held in the San Francisco Bay Area. I flew from Korea to participate and told Erwin about my idea, and Erwin thought it was good and had the idea of coming to China to promote math card chess. (Dorae Editor Interlude – In 2014, a public lecture on Go was held at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul, South Korea, and the Korean Chess Academy took the opportunity to promote Go and mathematics in Go to the international mathematical community.) There were three legendary four kings of Korea— Lee Chang-ho Nine Duan, Yoo Chang Hyuk Nine Duan, and Seo Bong-so Nine Duan, but Only Cho Hwan-hyun did not attend. Two years later, AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol in South Korea, heralding the age of artificial intelligence.)
What is mathematical card chess, that is, Erwin prepared some cards marked with the number of eyes, when you play each hand, if you feel that the number of eyes of the card is large, you can give up the work, choose the number of card items, and finally calculate the sum size of the number of eyes on the plate and the number of cards.
Erwin's earliest contact with Go was when he saw someone playing chess while in college. He would have been interested in researching any game and used mathematical methods to find the best answer. One of the games he studied was one called pazz, which was popular in Europe and the United States, and Erwin used mathematical methods to think about research, and soon reached the professional level.
Elwin was a genius in mathematics, but earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. In 1971, Erwin was hired as a professor of mathematics, electrical engineering, and computer science at the University of Berkeley. His book The Theory of Algebraic Coding won the Best Research Book Award from the Information Theory Group of the American Institute of Electronics. For his outstanding contributions in this field, ETA, Carbo, and The New Institute awarded him the title of Outstanding Young Electrical Engineer of the Year in 1971 and was elected chairman of the Information Theory Branch of the American Institute of Electronics. In 1977 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the youngest. At the age of 60, Erwin was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Erwin is a scientist who is constantly advancing in the field of science. During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, because of his leading position in algebraic coding theory, he was appointed as the director of the "Information Intelligence" department under the US Department of Defense, mainly doing coding and deciphering codes. Erwin said the job was well paid, but it could not be told to the public, and some of it was confidential. Erwin could not easily leave the country at that time.
Suddenly feel that Elwin's story is not strange at all, this is not the American blockbuster "A Beautiful Mind", many plots are like Elwin's experience.
"Mathematically, if the value of each move of a chess piece can be deduced, then numbers can be used to help understand the game," Erwin said. "I said that it is difficult to derive the value of each move, it is a big project, and this is the charm of Go.
Erwin said, yeah, but we have time. "It's something meaningful, do it!" Erwin said this with great vigour.