Default (Go)
The specification ( Japanese j合teai ) is the usual form of handicap in the Go board game . By default, games with balanced chances of victory between players of different strengths are possible.
A game without a handicap is referred to as a " tie-in game" (Japanese tagaisen ). Here Black starts on the empty board, and the draw advantage is usually offset by Komi . In contrast, a handicap game starts with a certain number of black pieces on the board. After White places the first white piece, it continues alternately. Black has a head start in building up his positions and a better starting position for fights.
Details
According to the Japanese tradition, the positions of each number of handicap stones are fixed. The maximum number is nine. The board points used here are the nine "star points" (hoshi) , which are highlighted on Go boards by small disc-shaped markings.
From China there is also the free handicap procedure , which means that the weaker player can choose the position of his handicap stones.
Handicap games are generally played with no komi or half a point komi (i.e. victory for White instead of a tie), unless comi points are used to fine-tune Black's advantage. In the latter case there is also negative Komi, i.e. points are credited to Black.
A handicap of one piece would mean that Black can place the first and White the second piece on the board as in a tie. Therefore, for a handicap of 1, one does not use a single handicap stone, but begins like in a game without handicap, but does not credit White with the usual Komi at the end of the game.
The position of most of the default points on the fourth row (counted from the edge of the board) corresponds, according to the opening theory of Go, to a style of play that initially seeks to develop the influence of the pieces on the board (in contrast to opening moves on the third row, which tend to be direct development of area benefit). On the small 9 × 9 board, the third row is used for the default.
In order to balance the chances of winning, the number of handicap stones must be adjusted to the difference in the skills of the opponents. For example, two players who often play together can agree that after a certain number of consecutive wins by the same player (in the Edo period this was traditionally four) the handicap should be adjusted. If, for example, the weaker player wins games with three handicap stones four times in a row, he will only take two in the next. In this way, the target levels off at a value that favors balanced profit statistics. A game whose outcome decides on the handicap from the next game according to such a rule is called a kadoban .
Before the introduction of the komi, black had a noticeable advantage, even without any special requirements, and for a fair comparison of two opponents you had to play at least two matches, with the color changing. The old Japanese system should be understood against this background, in which it was a requirement that one player in three games led the black pieces in two (sen-ai-sen) . The next higher handicap was josen , black in all games, even higher sen-ni , two games with two handicap pieces and one without as black.
Instructions are often not given in teaching games.
Specification and classification
Experience shows that with the individually determined number of handicap stones it is possible to set up an interval scale of overall game levels for the Go players. If a handicap is appropriate between two players A and B and a handicap is appropriate between B and C , then a handicap of approximately appropriate between A and C. (In the case of such calculations, the default value is 0, and the direction of the default is to be taken into account by a sign .)
The usual classification of Go players in kyu and dan grades in the amateur area is based on the specification, with one rank corresponding to a default stone on the 19 × 19 board.
On the smaller boards with 81 or 169 points, on which a single stone has a correspondingly larger share of the game, the number of handicap stones is chosen to be lower for a given difference in skill level. According to various recommendations, a number two to three times less is appropriate on the 13 × 13 board, and accordingly even less on the 9 × 9 board. The level of the komi is often varied to fine-tune the handicap. Many small boards, especially the 9 × 9 boards, only have four or five Hoshi markings on them.
The skill scale formed with the specifications is not linear in terms of the tied winning probabilities; the same number of handicap stones can statistically compensate for a greater imbalance of the winning chances among overall better players than with poorer ones. For example, a 1st Dan wins against a 3rd Dan without the two handicap stones attached in friendly games only in about 25% of the cases, while a 10th Kyu against an 8th Kyu without handicap has a chance of winning of about 40%.
In professional sports and tournaments, there are generally no specifications. However, in some amateur tournaments there is a reduced requirement that does not completely destroy the sporting advantage of the higher playing strength. For this purpose, if the mathematically displayed number of handicap stones exceeds a certain value - often 1 or 2 - this is deducted from the handicap; otherwise the game is tied.
The advantage of a handicap of “1” (game without Komi) can be expressed in such a way that during the game Black put an average of half a stone more on the board than White. Measured against this, the difference to a balanced game is only half as great as that between the requirements of and stones. This irregularity was taken into account in the classification system for the game classes . A difference of one league corresponds to half a handicap stone. In Germany this scale went out of use in the last quarter of the 20th century, in the Netherlands it can still be found.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://senseis.xmp.net/?HandicapForSmallerBoardSizes (as of August 29, 2007)
- ↑ http://gemma.ujf.cas.cz/~cieply/GO/statev.html (as of August 29, 2007)
- ↑ http://senseis.xmp.net/?DutchClassSystem (as of August 29, 2007)