Starting on Dec. 29, 2016, a player with the username "Master" achieved 41 straight victories on an online platform for the popular game Go. "Master" even beat a number of professional players from China and South Korea, including Park Jeong-hwan, Chen Yaoye and Lian Xiao.

Many advanced players attempted to beat the apparent expert out of curiosity, but no one was able to secure a victory. Chinese player Gu Li even offered a 100,000-RMB reward for the first player able to beat "Master."

Many people believe the mystery player is actually an artificial intelligence (AI) program. The coach of China's national Go team, Yu Bin, said that "Master" is not likely to be a human player because of its landslide victories against top players from around Asia. In addition to its overall easy victories, "Master" also makes very fast moves.

So far, no organization has claimed responsibility for the username. Meanwhile, some people believe that "Master" is an account secretly created by the player Ke Jie, who is currently ranked No. 1 in the world under Rémi Coulom's unofficial ranking system. On the last day of 2016, Ke posted a message on Weibo, saying that human players will achieve a new level with AI. He said he would meet the challenge using all of his wisdom.