Well.. I disagree that too much significance is being made of it. It is quite clearly a record. Handicap stones are a fundamental part of go. It is uninteresting for human players to play an even game where one player is incredibly stronger. There might be some recreational value.. but generally... it feels good to have a challenge and it feels good not to be crushed. Handicap stones and kyu or dan rating systems are built on the idea. When Mr. Kim says that he feels that Mogo was playing like a 2 or 3 dan... it is a powerful reference point in that Mr. Kim appraised Mogo as a professional who has played many different opponents. It seemed to me that Mr. Kim judged the handicaps and wanted to play giving Mogo 9 stones. I believe him when he says it had approximately low dan strength.
As far as the particular game... and talk of a rematch.. I think it is too quick to think about pairing off new matches. What I find significant about the game is that it set a record and made quite a huge jump compared to outcomes in the past years. I think many, at least outside of the Mogo team, were very surprised with how the match turned out. The Ing challenge is no longer around and there are computer scientists out there who thought that maybe... just maybe... go is a problem that computers can't solve (many definitions for solve here). Seeing this kind of jump leads to excitement in the go community... and I would bet that in the next few years.. we will see more pro challenges. Particularly if this generates interest among large go communities like those in Asia. Perhaps a new Ing challenge or something sponsored. Go is a huge game in Asia and it could be a bigger event than Deep Blue vs. Kasparov.. in terms of difficulty and wide audience. I am not saying that the match was the greatest thing in the history of computers. But I do think that this has the ability to change a few minds on the feasability of a computer playing go.
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