Korea's Shin Jinseo beats KataGo 2:1 | first human back-to-back win over top Go AI since Lee Sedol vs AlphaGo
TL;DR
World No. 1 Korean Go player Shin Jinseo 9-dan defeated KataGo by 11.5 points in the decisive game on July 21, taking the human-vs-AI series 2:1. Two-stone handicap. First time a human has back-to-back defeated the strongest Go AI in official play, 10 years after Lee Sedol vs AlphaGo. Prize: KRW 250M + a Genesis G90.
World No. 1 Korean Go player Shin Jinseo 9-dan on July 21 defeated Go AI KataGo by 11.5 points in the decisive game of the Korea Baduk Association's "Elite Math · Korea Economic Go Divine War", taking the series 2:1. This is the first back-to-back official win by a human over the strongest Go AI since Lee Sedol vs AlphaGo, 10 years ago.
The rules: Shin receives a two-stone handicap (black places two stones before play). Shin gets 5 hours of thinking time plus a single 30-second byo-yomi; KataGo has no total time limit but must play each move within 20 seconds. It's a bespoke structure — two stones traded for compressed AI thinking time.
On July 19, game 2, Shin won by 4.5 points after 290 moves over 4 hours 50 minutes — KataGo's first loss to a human in official play. Today's decisive game clinched it by 11.5 points.
KataGo is a free, open-source Go engine developed by American programmer David J. Wu. Distributed training keeps it as one of the strongest Go AIs since 2020. Its strength has dominated human pros for years — losing to a human even with a two-stone handicap is unprecedented for this generation of AI.
Shin took home the match fee and prize totaling KRW 250 million (~USD 180,000 / RMB 1.15M), plus a Genesis G90 sedan.
via Yonhap / The Korea Herald
The rules: Shin receives a two-stone handicap (black places two stones before play). Shin gets 5 hours of thinking time plus a single 30-second byo-yomi; KataGo has no total time limit but must play each move within 20 seconds. It's a bespoke structure — two stones traded for compressed AI thinking time.
On July 19, game 2, Shin won by 4.5 points after 290 moves over 4 hours 50 minutes — KataGo's first loss to a human in official play. Today's decisive game clinched it by 11.5 points.
KataGo is a free, open-source Go engine developed by American programmer David J. Wu. Distributed training keeps it as one of the strongest Go AIs since 2020. Its strength has dominated human pros for years — losing to a human even with a two-stone handicap is unprecedented for this generation of AI.
Shin took home the match fee and prize totaling KRW 250 million (~USD 180,000 / RMB 1.15M), plus a Genesis G90 sedan.
via Yonhap / The Korea Herald
