[computer-go] MoGo

[Erik van der Werf]

On 4/4/07, Don Dailey <drd at mit.edu> wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-04-04 at 23:35 +0200, Erik van der Werf wrote:
> > Traditionally the weaker player plays black and it seems reasonable
> > that starting the game should not be a disadvantage. Consequently, if
> > these statistics are at all admissible, my choice would be for 6.5
> > komi.
>
> But 7.5 seems like a kind of standard for 9x9.  With CGOS there is
> no reason to try to prefer that black has the advantage - the
> server enforces that each pair of players plays an equal number
> of black and white matches.

I agree. For CGOS, and with alternating colors, tradition is not an
issue, so you can simply use whatever value works best for equalizing
the probability of winning. OC, then you could also consider using the
integer value of 7, or would the occasional draw (which tradition
likes to rule out completely) be problematic in the pairing?

> I guess if 7.5 wasn't so widely accepted, I would also prefer 6.5
> for the reasons you stated.

I'm not sure it's that widely accepted (yet), the komi increase to 7.5
is still a relatively recent change. Not long ago it used to be 5.5 or
6.5. Here in the Netherlands many 19x19 games are still played with
6.5 (or sometimes even 5.5) komi. Moreover, I have the impression that
in most cases the komi used for 9x9 is simply whichever is commonly
used for 19x19.

Erik