Human vs machine – Go game showdown kicks off in Seoul

Game on: Go game fans watching a live footage of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match at the Korea Baduk Association in Seoul. — AFP

SEOUL: A 3,000-year-old Chinese board game was the focus of a very 21st century showdown as South Korean Go grandmaster Lee Se-Dol kicked off his highly anticipated clash with the Google-developed supercomputer, AlphaGo.

Experts were reluctant to tip a winner between Lee, one of the greatest Go players of the modern era who has topped the world ranking for most of the past decade, and the computer, which has already crushed European champion Fan Hui in a 5-0 whitewash.