\section{Introduction}

\begin{displayquote}
	Go is an ancient game which, from its forgotten origins in China, spread first
	to the rest of East Asia, and then to the entire world. How ancient? Historians
	aren't sure; it has a definite history of over 3000 years, but according to
	tradition Go was invented more than 4000 years ago. The English name comes from
	the Japanese name Igo, which means ``surrounding boardgame''.

	In this game, each player tries to use threats of death, capture, or isolation
	to assert control over more of the board than his opponent. An abstract strategy
	game at heart, Go has nonetheless been interpreted as a stylized representation
	of fighting a war, settling a frontier, cornering a market, thrashing out an
	argument, or even of fortune-telling and prophecy. Go has always been one of the
	most played games in the world.\cite{sl_go}
\end{displayquote}

As old and deep as Go is it has recently lived a revolution by the appearance of
artificial intelligences with superhuman strength. While not expecting to
achieve what a full team of developers and computer scientists at Google did,
this project aims to evaluate how an engine able to play the game of Go could be
created, implement such an engine and evaluate the results of the whole process.