How strong does TurboGo play?
It’s very hard to give a correspondance between a go program’s level and a human Kyu level. This is because the program doesn’t play like a human. In some areas it will be much stronger and in others much weaker than the corresponding person. As you learn its style, you will be able to beat it with a different handicap since you can exploit its weaknesses. Given that, at level 5, in the first game against someone not familiar with it, I would put TurboGo at about 12 kyu, depending on the style of the opponent. Generally it will play better against someone who plays standard sequences and doesn’t challenge it to tricky contact fights. It also depends on the board size: TurboGo will play much stronger on the 9×9 board, and weaker on the 19×19 board. For more information about the playing strength of TurboGo, please read the TurboGo helpfile.
