[computer-go] Komi for 9x9 computers

[Don Dailey]

Yes, we could have draws and it wouldn't hurt a thing, but in
many games draws are seen as undesirable.   From time to time
it has been considered for chess,  how to reduce the number of
draws, and ideas have been considered such as simply giving 
the black player an extra fraction of a point to encourage white
to try harder for a win.   None of these ideas have been seriously
considered because they change the game too much,  but the fact
that they are considered at all indicates that it is seen as a bad
thing.   

Although it's not much of an issue in GO, you want both players
always fighting for the win.   I can image that even in GO, at
least among strong players there could be a tendency to "keep the
draw in hand" which leads to boring play.  Masters might tend to
fight very hard to first get enough to secure a draw, but then 
not take too many chances.   That's how chess is played by masters
now - first and most important consideration - don't lose.

I suspect that this might not be much of a consideration in the
19x19 game but I am sure that top players would likely "draw"
a lot of 9x9 games if komi were close to fair and even.   Not an
issue yet for computers,  but the culture of GO seems to be that
draws are undesirable.

I have empirical evidence that it's possible to play for a draw
(or a "not lose") in Go.   Lazarus and Viking would play exactly
like this if we tell them 7.5 is the komi, but actually score the
game by 7.0.    Probably Lazarus more than Viking since Viking
seems to be more tactically oriented (it doesn't like to make 
some kinds of stupid moves even if it doesn't hurt it's winning
chances.)

- Don



On Tue, 2006-05-02 at 21:47 +0200, Chaslot G (CS) wrote:
> > I would be curious to see what 6.5 komi does too.
> 
> If you have all the results in your logs, it should be possible to make
> the same statistics on komi of 7 and 6.5.
> 
> Why not having draws sometimes?
> 
> Guillaume
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