Ing Prize

A prize of 1,400,000 yen ^[1] for the first computer Go-playing program that succeeds in beating a Taiwanese Go professional. The prize was donated by Ing Chang-Ki. After Mr Ing's death, the Ing Foundation continued the contest until the end of 2000. According to Masahiro Okasaki, in 1993 the company Acer stopped its financial help and Ing promised to sustain the support until 2000, which the foundation honoured after his death.

There were also lesser prizes for beating young professionals at various handicaps. The last winner of the prize was HandTalk for beating a 9 year old professional at 11 stones. The unclaimed prize in 2000 was at a 9 stone handicap for $400,000 NT.

The winner of the annual Ing-sponsored World Computer Go Championship qualified for the Ing Prize attempt. Thus, this list also shows who won the Ing championship each year. Due to the generous sponsorship, this was the premier computer championship for this time period. The championship and challenges used Ing's rules of GOE (8 point komi, chinese-style free play handicap). The handicap indicates how many of the computer's stones are on the board when white makes his first move.

Attempts

Year Handicap Name Result
1989 17 Goliath    0-1
1990    Goliath
1991 17 Goliath    3-0 ($100,000 NT)
1991 15 Goliath    0-3
1992    Go Intellect
1993 15 HandTalk   1-2
1994 15 Go Intellect 0-3
1995 15 HandTalk   2-1 ($150,000 NT) [3]
1995 13 HandTalk   2-1 ($200,000 NT) [3]
1996 11 HandTalk   0-3
1997 11 HandTalk   2-1 ($250,000 NT)
1998  9 Many Faces 0-3
1999  9 Go4++      0-3
2000  9 Wulu       0-3

References

• David Fotland's site
• Michael Reiss's site (archived)

[1] The amount in US$ varies: the official amount is 40,000,000 New Taiwan (NT) dollars.

[3] David Fotland's report (archived) of the 1995 event gives different prize amounts for these challenges: NT$100,000 and $133,333.

• ING杯世界コンピュータ囲碁大会 (ING Cup World Computer Go Tournament) on Japanese wikipedia