Thanks. I found this article[1], (linked from the original) that also mentioned this: "In recent years, many programmers have tried to get around this problem

Thanks. I found this article[1], (linked from the original) that also mentioned this: "In recent years, many programmers have tried to get around this problem with Monte Carlo simulation, a statistical means of finding the best first move from a vast database of the games that might begin from a given position. That method is also used a bit in AlphaGo, together with the tree-generating methods of yore. But the key improvement is AlphaGo’s use of deep neural networks to recognize patterns." 1. http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/networks/alphago-wins-match-against-top-go-player http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/networks/alphag...