I suggest the following:

Keep the first rule:

1. If both players pass consecutively, then they cannot pass again until each player has placed one more stone on the board.

And add this rule:

2. If a player has no legal move or if his only legal move is to place a stone inside his own uncontested territory (that is, in territory surrounded by his own stones and which does not contain any stones of the opposite color), then the game is ended and whoever has more points is declared the winner. All stones on the board are counted as alive (this isn't right, but it will make the programming easier for Fencer ;-)

These rules would force an end to the game. I don't think they would lead to a change in strategy. And players would not be forced to fill in their own eyes. What do you think?

heyo: There may be another way to solve that problem:
If players don't agree on dead stones, they should play until no more dead stones are on the board. Passing is allowed but stones are counted as territory. (So passing gives you no advantage while your opponent fills up his own territory taking away dead stones.)

That's the Chinese method of scoring, also called area scoring. Brainking uses territory scoring, which is the Japanese method. I think it would be interesting if BrainKing added Go with Chinese scoring as a variant. But it would be nice to find a way to make Japanese scoring work.

heyo: I apologize for the lateness of my reply.

The player with more points (on the board) has more opportunities to place stones in his own territory than the player with less points, so he should win the game anyhow.

That may be true, but it changes the strategy of the game. You would have to switch from surrounding territory to trying not to play the last stone, and then you're not really playing Go anymore.

First, as I already mentioned, white may have fewer points on the board but may be leading by komi

That doesn't matter. If white has fewer points on the board but leads by komi, then he wins. Period. That's how the komi rule works.

Second: the player with more groups is in a disadvantage because he has maintain 2 liberties (eyes) for every group.

That's a good point. If players are forced to move, they may be forced to fill in their own eyes, and that would change the status of the game.

kaluza: I don't like the second part: "A player who can't legally place a stone loses the game." If the player with fewer points is in a position where he would end up placing the last stone, he can force a win for himself by just continuing to play.

There may be another way to solve that problem:
If players don't agree on dead stones, they should play until no more dead stones are on the board. Passing is allowed but stones are counted as territory. (So passing gives you no advantage while your opponent fills up his own territory taking away dead stones.)

kaluza: If the player with fewer points is in a position where he would end up placing the last stone, he can force a win for himself by just continuing to play.

The player with more points (on the board) has more opportunities to place stones in his own territory than the player with less points, so he should win the game anyhow.
There are other weaknesses that have to be discussed:
First, as I already mentioned, white may have fewer points on the board but may be leading by komi
Second: the player with more groups is in a disadvantage because he has maintain 2 liberties (eyes) for every group.

But then, in games where the outcome is so close it is unlikely players don't agree on dead stones.
The feature request was targeted at games where the (clear) looser could hinder the winner of taking his victory by just not agreeing to the dead stones.

heyo: (copied from Feature requests board) "My suggestion to handle this: after the game has ended and players don't agree about dead stones both are forced to place at least one stone befor they may pass again. A player who can't legaly place a stone looses the game.
This may lead to a new problem if the game's ending is slightly in favor for white (only by komi), but would solve the problem that by the rules as they are now nobody can ever win a game of GO if the opponent doesn't agree."

I like the idea of forcing each player to place a stone before they can pass again. That's consistent with Go etiquette. If the players don't agree on dead stones, they should play it out.

I don't like the second part: "A player who can't legally place a stone loses the game." If the player with fewer points is in a position where he would end up placing the last stone, he can force a win for himself by just continuing to play.

Hi,
first I thought, there isn't a GO discussion group, but Fencer said I should post here too, so I looked again and found it under "variations of line 4" - I never thought of GO as a "variation of x". GO just is - and other games are just variations of GO! ;-)

To the point now: I've postet a suggestion (http://brainking.com/en/Board?bc=3&plla=714945) that is relativly easy to implement and would deal with most problems arising in case of disagreement about dead stones. I know that it dosn't care about all problems, but at least it forces an end to the games. Any comments?

ivoSF: sometimes the ratings do change, but you just don't know it.

That is it is possible your rating was 1533.0 and it raised to 1533.4 (but since you don't see the decimal part of it, it looks like it raised 0)

hello, can anyone enlighten me how this ranking system works exactly?

i find it rather anoying that if i win 3/4 of mine games the change in mine rating is zero.
in the faq it says its based on the chess rating system, but i believe in real life you always gain ranking even against a much lower ranked opponent like perhaps 2 points but never zero.

does anyone know a detailed way how this is handled

furbster: I know how frustrating that is, but you are lucky because your opponent has proven to be quite reasonable in the past. Perhaps just inexperienced here. I'm sure it will work out.

emmett: I'm rejecting all of the ones he has marked (all mine). I have messaged twice in the game stating none of them are dead. it might be over soon though as i have had the first pass now, hopefully he will do the same and the game might end.

furbster: What stones are you rejecting?

Have you tried messaging your opponent directly, explaining how it is obvious that it is your game, and explain go etiquette a little?

Is there any solution for games like this? I've rejected the same set of dead stones 3 times now. Go 9x9 (furbster vs. FrancescoLR)

onigoroshi: lots of things aren't handled correctly in the .sgf's.
See http://brainking.com/en/ReadBug?bgi=977 for a few of the bugs I've identified.
As well as:
http://brainking.com/en/ReadBug?bgi=1067
and:
http://brainking.com/en/ReadBug?bgi=1082

It seems that handicap stones are not handled correctly in the .sgf export code...

hexkid: Okay, I get it, I didn't realize what I was agreeing to, being a newbie.... Thanks for enlightening me!

jurek: Will he do this to all of the other hundreds of games that were improperly scored, too?
If I were him, I'd say no :)
I think that unless he's asked to change a specific game result all the results will be kept as they are now. It's very tough for a computer to determine the correct score in many games; that's why the players need to mark dead stones and let the computer determine the score from there. If the stones are incorrectly marked dead, the score is incorrectly calculated.

Binabik: it shouldn't be possible for this to happen, am I right?
Well ... you accepted the score.
If you had declined the dead stones the game would go on ... your opponent could mark the stones differently on the next move ... or maybe she'd mark them the same and you decline again ... and again ... and again ... and again :)
The end of game needs to be reviewed by Fencer. There have been quite a few threads about that already.

fakarten: Thank you fakarten and Hexkid for the explanation... you're right, it shouldn't be possible for this to happen, am I right?

hexkid: Will he do this to all of the other hundreds of games that were improperly scored, too?

Binabik: Send a message to Fencer and he'll make it right (once he returns from vacation).

Binabik: Because your opponent incorrectly marked all your stones as dead, and you accepted it.

Hi, could someone tell me why I lost this game?
Go 9x9 (Binabik vs. gene)

joshi tm: Yes, he can go directly to the database and set the game finished with a specific winner (if I'm right Black wins by 1.5 points -- that would terminate the tournament and give you 2nd place).

I'm sure he reads this board, but send him a message.

hexkid: Can't Fencer do anything about that?

joshi tm: Maybe you can *bump* one of these threads of the "Feature Request" board :)

Hey i'm having trouble in this game here Go 13x13 (joshi tm - faith) . My opponent is losing the game and when we both pass, she makes an offer that i must refuse, because she doesn't mark her own stones dead. What should I do?

Would it be in poor taste to equate some of our go and shogi BK ratings into levels of kyu and dan rankings? Is this at all feasible? I know that only the extremely skilled make it to dan levels in go, yet I've always wondered what kyu level I play at. Is this worth discussing on Brainking?

Thank you for your detailed responses. Wow!

emmett: As far as I know, using a komi ("handicaps") is standard, though the values vary.

Sensei's Library has a lot to read about komi among many other Go related articles.

emmett: This is taken from http://senseis.xmp.net/?Komi :
"With the notable exception of the Oteai, almost all tournaments nowadays, both amateur and professional, use komi. But this has not always been so. In fact, komi was rarely used in professional tournaments before 1937, and its gradual introduction into professional play was not without controversy.

The usual komi in Japan was for some time 4.5 points (specified as 4 points with White winning jigo)[4], although even lower values were commonly used early on. In 1955 the Oza became the first tournament to adopt 5.5. Today the standard komi in Japan is 5.5 points, although the Nihon Ki-in decided to change to 6.5 in September 2002.[1] Korea also used to use 5.5, but is already in the process of switching to 6.5.[2]. The usual komi in China was formerly 5.5, but 7.5 is now standard.[3] The Ing rules also have a komi of 7.5, specified as 8 points with Black winning jigo. Western countries often used to follow Japanese practice in using a komi of 5.5 points, but tournaments with komi set at 6 or 6.5 are not uncommon. The New Zealand rules specify a komi of 7. The American Go Association changed komi from 5.5 to 7.5 in August 2004, effective 2005."

I have played go for awhile and have not seen automatic handicaps in white's favor like we have here on BK. Is it de rigeur to feature such handicaps? Do tournament players in Japan or Korea play with these handicaps? (By handicaps, I mean the 5.5 points at the end of our 19x19 games in white's favor, etc...)

Fencer: Thank you.

kaluza: I've just fixed it. However, it was only a visual bug, the real scores were counted correctly.

kaluza: So I see. Sorry Fencer (but it serves as a reminder ).

hexkid: I already reported it on bugtracker a month ago:

http://brainking.com/en/ReadBug?bgi=976

kaluza: You're right. The score is wrongly calculated by the server.

I reported it as bug in the Bug tracker.

When BrainKing calculates points in Go, it does not include green areas (areas captured on the last move).

Examples:

Go 9x9 (kaluza vs. milionovej kluk)
In this game, BrainKing says that black has 15.5 points, but it should be 19.5.

Go 13x13 (Serg vs. kaluza)
Here, BrainKing says that black has 47.5 points, but it's really 61.5.

There's one thing I don't understand: Why can just one player mark dead stones???
It should of course be like that:

1. One player passes
2. The other player passes too
3. The first player should be asked to mark dead stones
4. The other player should either accept the marked stones (that would finish the game) or give the chance to mark dead stones himself.
6. If the first player doesn't accept the dead stones marked by his opponent the game should continue WIT the possibility to pass again.

Ok, I know this setup could lead to a never ending game with both players not accepting the score but you could limit this sequens to maybe 2 times then the game would automatically send to the Go administrator to say who's the winner.

volant: yes i know that but when one player just keeps playing cause it gaves him action points it gets very annoying

volant: and a player should pass when every move he/she makes decreases his/her score.

imsoaddicted: it ends when both players pass their turn. 

could someone explain to me how do you know when a game is finished
and isnt it pointless for someone to continue to lay stones when the game was over 50 moves ago

gringo: The game seems to have been tweaked (by Fencer?). Even though it shows Black with 7 points and White with 9.5 points, the winner is Black; which is correct.

Black wins by 11.5 points.

Something went wrong wih the calculation of this game: Go 13x13 (gringo vs. jitkasafa)

Being lazy I didnt't mark the dead stones as I thought I would have won anyway as the interface shows more points for me. What can I do now?

Chaosu: Try changing the text size in your browser. Open the View / Text Size menu and choose different sizes until, hopefully, it looks right.

hexkid: Thanks!

fakarten: The SGF viewer/editor I like best is Kiseido's. Unfortunately, unlike MultiGo, it doesn't rotate or mirror the board (at least not my old version 2.6.12).

Can anyone recommend a SGF-viewer which will let me rotate and mirror the board?

I find it very confusing to review a game from a different perspective than I played it, but I guess that can be trained.