Joseki museum · 24
Which AI joseki retired, and why preserve them?
A vanished recommendation was not necessarily refuted. Timing may have changed, search may have been unstable, or training may have repaired a blind spot. A museum preserves why an answer once made sense and why it later failed.
Separate retirement from error
A line may remain locally playable but no longer fit whole-board timing. Local refutation, faster replacement, and simple disappearance from fashion need different labels.
Boards A and B have similar coordinates but local and global retirement causes. Separate an old-model answer from a present-day rerun
All seven boards here rerun historical games with the current model. The panel below each board shows network model, rules, komi, root visits, and analysis date. The original receipt did not retain the engine version, so the page marks it missing. These boards compare A and B today; they do not prove an older AI chose either line at the time.
Known conditions are open by default, and the missing engine version is stated plainly. Repeated joseki blind spots merit repair
In a KataGo opening-joseki issue, the developer explains that recurring shapes are valuable training targets because fixes pay off across many games; sharp lines such as the flying dagger have benefited from targeted starts.
A recurring corner blind spot accumulates more impact than a one-off exotic position. Search instability is not historical overthrow
If one network changes its first move across budgets or symmetries, an old screenshot lacks enough evidence to define an era. Label it search-unstable rather than conquered by a newer AI.
Eight-symmetry audit asks whether the exhibit ever had one stable old answer. Timing retires more often than coordinates
Many AI-era changes are not illegal moves but over-completion: too many exchanges before tenuki. A shorter line can let the same local skeleton return in a new order.
Complete and early-tenuki lines compare efficiency with a move ledger. Record revival conditions
A retired move can regain value under another komi, ruleset, ladder, outside formation, or reply order. The label lists conditions for revival instead of a permanent cross.
One old move changes from burden to dual-purpose under a different outside position. A museum transfers reasons, not dead answers
The useful exhibit joins old rationale, new refutation, and surviving concepts—thickness, sente, ladders, and aji. Players learn judgment instead of collecting expired coordinates.
The final exhibit shows old reason, retirement cause, and the concept still usable today.
Official history and cases
Five views of an old joseki
- When it actually appeared
- Why it made sense then
- How the current model values it
- Conditions that may flip the result
- What remains useful today