It seems like in all three games, AlphaGo plays a thick move that looks a bit baffling to the commentators, but then miraculously those moves become hugely profitable somewhat later on in the game.

Is it possible that all of AlphaGo's strength is in these baffling moves? If humans played enough games against AlphaGo and discovered how to counter the baffling moves, is it plausible that AlphaGo's strength would be lost?

It seems to me that AlphaGo's main strengths are:

- It doesn't make mistakes due to pressure or fatigue; it's always playing at its sharpest

- It can read deeper than humans can

- It seems to have better judgement than most current professional players

Watching the game and the commentary there's an eerie sensation that AlphaGo is just going along playing the petty local games with Lee Sedol. It's very anthropocentric, but you could imagine AlphaGo saying "I could have crushed you from the start ... but I'll just play along and do that one move to give you the illusion that it was close".

But maybe it could have 40 of those moves to play an incredibly confusing game for humans. I think giving the machine a big handicap against pros might reveal it's true colours ...

It was stated by one of the developers that AlphaGo doesn't play to maximize the number of points it wins by. It's satisfied to win by one point. It maximizes the probability of winning. It plays thick moves and tries to simplify the board.

If the player forces it to a fight, it will fight back, but that's only because losing the fight will definitely lose the game.

no :)