Go Grandmaster Ke Jie: Global rankings are pointless

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"I heard a lot of netizens were searching for me because I commented on the global Go rankings? Actually I can't count how many times I've called this list 'unreliable and pointless' in the past year. Unfortunately no one cared then," China's Go Grandmaster Ke Jie said on his Weibo on Tuesday.

Ke has won 22 consecutive games since the contest between him and Google's Alpha Go AI in May 2017. However, he started to lose games unexpectedly and lost his No.1 ranking. But Ke managed to move to No.2 in the latest global rankings with an Elo rating of 3621, putting him just below S. Korea's Park Junghwan, who has 3670.

Ke Jie called the global Go rating list "unreliable and pointless" on his Weibo. /Screenshot of Ke Jie's Weibo

In his Weibo post, Ke said that he could feel himself getting worse at Go. "I have finished four games in six days and spent two days on the road. Tomorrow I still need to attend the celebrity game. Now I kinda feel sorry for myself."

Ke made negative comments about the global Go rankings in an interview with "Hard Talk with Wang (Zhian) ". He said he's still No.1 in the domestic rankings and called the global list "unlicensed", unofficial and said that no Go players care about it.

Ke also talked more about AI Go players. "The AI players have increased my knowledge of Go. I need to restart my understanding of this sport. The Go world is in an AI era now. The gap between humans and AI is small. Theoretically, a human can still beat AI opponents, but I don't think I can."