Nice work Fencer!
Thank you so much!

Nice to have a Go discussion board too!

Everyone is welcome to join the Go Fellowship.

Salkkuman created two Go tournaments:

Let's go!

Go Go Igo #1

Seems only fitting to have you mod of the Go board Fwiffo!

Rose: Thanks Rose :)
I will put up a few links to help beginners.

AHA! I found the board! LOL

If you have no clue as what type of game Go is, its tough to find.

congrats, Fwiffo!

The game closest to Go on this site is probably Amazons...

To learn a little more about Go, try going through the tutorial that is listed above. (and below in the post)

http://playgo.to/interactive/

I've almost made it through the whole tutorial, and I believe I at least have a beter understanding of the game. Far from an expert, but hopefully I know enough to be able to win against other non-experts.

some good other sites for learning go are:

http://senseis.xmp.net/ (a lot of stuff, structure like wikepedia)

and for them who can wanna test their skills:

http://www.goproblems.com/

Does anyone think that perhaps a Komi of 5.5 is too low? I prefer 6.5 and I have heard some tournaments are using 7.5 but not many as of yet. I also recommend the site from the American Go Associaton and for excellent Go products such as books, sets, and software try Samarkand- the American player Janice Kim owns Samarkand.

DragonKing: I'm used to 6.5 too. I believe 6.5 is used in Japan, but 7.5 in China. Maybe more experienced players than myself can clarify?

http://senseis.xmp.net/?Komi

I'm not sure why but i have white lines running through my boards of Go. Can anyone clarify that there supposed to be there, i'm pretty sure there not and it's quite irritating. Any reasons why it may be doing this?

furbster: Try to reload the game page by ctrl-f5.

furbster: Fwiffo had the same problem in firefox, and I'm not sure if he has it fixed yet (using a different browser worked for him.)

Things to try:

Reload the page while holding down "shift" key - this forces the page to reload all the graphics again and hopefully the board graphics correctly.

If that does not work, try clearing the browsers cache - this also will remove all the graphics from the page making the browser to re-download the game board graphics.

The F5 thingy didn't work and i've deleted my temporary internet files and it's still the same.

Same problem still with Firefox, also with older Mozilla browser. Not however with Konqueror. Also not in Firefox in the other games with similar boards like pente.

I would like to have a setting like in Lines in order to get bigger pawns

Fwiffo: So do we all pretty much agree that 6.5 would be the better Komi to use? Rather than 5.5?

DragonKing: That would be an interesting conclusion to call two or three people "we all".

Pedro Martínez: And yet if you read closer you would see the words, PRETTY MUCH. You thunk it should be 5.5 or are you just being difficult for some reason?

Marfitalu: On the Go fellowship there was a discussion on that issue. (You are welcome to join.) The reason they are unrated is because that is the easiest way now. Maybe Fencer will change some things later, I do not know. I myself see the game as in a kind of testing stage, probably Fencer is glad to hear about unexpected problems and possible points of improvement (like the 'correct' komi etc.).
Go is much harder to implement than most other games although the rules are simple.

Hello everyone! I'd like to establish a rating here on BrainKing for Go!

onigoroshi: You are even newer than the game of Go :)
Go was introduced very recently so not many players have a rating yet. Just play 25 rated games and you have a rating, but only 4 to get yourself a provisional rating.
The 3 variant (9x9, 13x13, 19x19) are considered different games, so when you have a rating in one of them you don't necessarily have a rating in the other two.

Fwiffo: Thanks! So, I see that handicap games are automatically not rated... which kinda sucks, as this is one of the main attractions/tenets to Go... But, perhaps in due time this can be added. Also, does the rating formula take into consideration how strong the players are who you defeat?

onigoroshi: Yes, it does. If you are a strong player, and losing from a weakie, you'll lose more points than when losing from a master. And vice versa of course.

Mirjam: okay, that makes sense. Is a spline curve used that takes into account a user's past and future expected win percentage, or are the points gained from defeating a stronger player awarded and then that defeat is never taken into consideration again?

FYI, I posted this to features (not knowing this board was established) but those of you who think 5.5 is too low for Komi are correct. The standard now in Japan is 6.5, and in China, Korea, and the US (AGA as of 2005), the standard is 7.5. Komi is also usually the same for 13x13 and 9x9, not smaller (since on a small board, the first move is even more important, but the scores are lower). Hopefully this will get remedied pretty quick, and hopefully we'll be able to choose komi for those who think 7.5 is too large :) It would also be nice to have handicapped games count toward your rating (weighted appropriately) since strong players will be very difficult to topple.

Cheri and I are playing the game 1572768.

Would someone instruct us which stones are dead, please and if possible why.
Cheri thinks my all right hand stones are deads.
I think her c1, c2 and f1 are deads.

We have both pass our turn.

Spirou: c1, c2 and f1 are dead

Fwiffo: Thank you for your help. And what about the Cheri assertion, please?

Because they cannot make a living group there: black can capture with d1 and g1 and white cannot prevent a capture in any way

The black group is alive: the black groups are connected because the white stones in between are dead

In general: if you are not sure you could also just go on playing and 'prove' a group is dead or not

But the other player MUST also make a move (or you would have lost a point by playing in your own territory

Fwiffo: Thank you again for your help.

Can I say something about the game? I think it's not really over

Fwiffo: Sure! We need to learn.

white should play f4, black has to defend against a cut at g3

or else lose the j4 stones: so black has to play a stone in his own territory

Fwiffo: I agree and then???

It costs black one point. The cut is lethal: f4 pass g3... and there is no good reply left for black
so if black is first he plays f4, if white plays first she plays f4 and black has to cover the cut which cost him 1 point

Fwiffo: Yes, you are right and that is why the computer didn't give me the corner already. Thank you for the enlightment. After that the game is over I think.

For instance:
w f4, b pass, w g3, b h3, w g2 (atari), b g1, w h2 (atari which black cannot escape)

Indeed. Fortunately, I will answer g3 and not pass.

Fwiffo: Thanks for helping!

wow! this game seems complicated :)

just finished reading the rules on here, now on to the sites which are posted :)

i have some questions while reading the rules though:
in this position isnt the white group at K13, etc. a dead group ?
isnt the black stone at M6 dead as well ? (it can be captured by white i think?)

Hrqls: what about this figuve ? if white plays at A, then black can play at B, but white can then play at the position left of A ? (or is that not allowed because the white group, then existing of 2 stones, will have no liberties anymore ?)

Hrqls:
Is the K13 group dead? No. If black tries to invade at L13, white would play at M13. Now, black cannot play at L12 or N13, as it would be suicide. The L13 stone is dead and white lives in that area. If black invades at M13, white plays at L13 and a similar thing happens.

Is the M6 stone dead? Yes, if it were played out, white could capture the black stone. But white cannot make two eyes in that area enclosed by black. Since two eyes are the minimum requirement for life, the white stones are dead. It is in white's best interest to not capture that black stone, as white needs to play more than one stone to capture a single stone; the net outcome for white would be less than just declaring them dead.

If white plays at A and black plays at B, white *cannot* play to the left of A. It would be suicide because the black group still has one liberty to the right of B. This is the same situation as the K13 group in your previous question. (except this is straight 4 versus bent 4)

I'm having a hard time understanding dead stones. If I mark stones as dead, the opponent can accept or reject. If your opponent accepts, will the computer automatically accept this as the score even if the players were mistaken? If you don't mark any stones dead, will the computer automatically mark the dead stones for the final score?