How Google's AlphaGo Beat a Go World Champion

Tonight, Lee Sedol is supported by one 33-year-old human brain and approximately 12 ounces of coffee. At its core, the game of Go, which originated in China more than 2,500 years ago, is an abstract war simulation. Players start with a completely blank board and place black and white stones, one at a time, to surround territory. Once placed, stones do not move, and they're removed only if they're "killed"--that is, surrounded completely by the opponent's stones. And so the game goes--black stone, white stone, black stone, white stone--until the board is covered in an intricate tapestry of black and white.