AlphaGo often plays surprising moves. Typically high-level commentary describes the horizon of "surprising" here as playing wider, faster, and more influence-or

AlphaGo often plays surprising moves. Typically high-level commentary describes the horizon of "surprising" here as playing wider, faster, and more influence-oriented than current professionals think is appropriate. AlphaGo is repeatedly praised for identifying moves which seem too unconcerned with the opponents threats and instead take more power on the board in a leisurely fashion. The first big surprising move it played was a "4th line shoulder hit" which was thought to give too much territory to the opponent (a "3rd line shoulder hit" is considered a very fine and popular move). AlphaGo showed that at the right time even the 4th line variant is good since is gave AlphaGo large influence at the right time and position. A lot of go comes down to timing. AlphaGo doesn't seem to play moves which are inhuman in that they just make zero sense as much as plays moves which are more daring than humans would like to try. Then, infallibly, it turns out that AlphaGo's daring move had the mark of being amazingly well-timed.