WallZero AI Masters WallGo, Reveals Game Strategies

WallGo is a recently introduced strategic board game that gained popularity following its feature in the 2025 Netflix series "The Devil's Plan." Despite being played on a relatively small 7x7 board, the game's combination of stone movement and wall placement creates a high degree of game-tree complexity and intricate strategic interactions, making it a challenging domain for AI research. To explore this underexplored game, researchers developed WallZero, an AI agent based on the AlphaZero framework. WallZero incorporates specifically tailored action and feature designs to significantly enhance its playing performance. In evaluations, WallZero demonstrated its prowess by consistently defeating two professional Go players who participated in the study, securing an average of 1.98 times more territory per game. Beyond its exceptional playing strength, WallZero was also utilized as an analytical tool to assess the fairness of the game and to identify key strategies for mastering WallGo. Interestingly, the analysis revealed that the specific opening move featured in the Netflix series actually leads to a more balanced game outcome. The code for WallZero has been made publicly available.